ALBANY, N.Y. — It was just more than a month after a man walked into a Connecticut elementary school and killed 20 children, mostly six and seven years old, plus six adults, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the SAFE Act into law; a package of gun control measures that has been a signature accomplishment of his time in office. 

"It's just one step in a long battle to fight this epidemic of gun violence," said state Sen. Brian Kavanagh (D-26)

Supporters of gun rights, however, see it quite differently. 

"To me the real goal for many of these folks is just to limit and reduce gun ownership," said state Sen. Robert Ortt (R-62). "They're uncomfortable with people owning firearms, period."

State records show 15,498 charges since 2012 have been issued under the SAFE Act. Most of those charges have been issued against defendants in Queens and in the Bronx. The most common SAFE Act charge has been criminal possession of a firearm, upgraded from a misdemeanor to a felony under the law. The SAFE Act itself was really a collection of different gun control measures and enhancements to existing laws, including possessing an illegal weapon school grounds or the first-degree murder of a first responder. 

"There was a lot of rhetoric about things that were supposed to happen once the SAFE Act — guns being rounded up, your hunting rifle being made illegal and none of that has come to pass," Kavanagh.

Other aspects have been difficult to enforce, such as limiting the number of rounds in a magazine to seven. An ammunition database to be compiled by the state police has not been developed and Second Amendment advocates believe the measure is an example of misunderstanding rural, Upstate life. 

"There's a different culture," said Tom King of the Rifle and Pistol Association. "There's a different lifestyle between upstate New York and metropolitan New York, the five boroughs. Firearms are a part of the tradition of many, many families in upstate New York."

Sen. Ortt has introduced a bill that would repeal the SAFE Act in upstate New York, leaving it intact in the New York City area. Like a full repeal of the SAFE Act sought by many gun owners, is unlikely to pass and be signed into law. 

"I think it is unlikely that as long as the governor occupies the governor's chair, it is unlikely we will see a repeal," said Ortt.

Instead, Ortt says he's also focusing on education and permit recertification for gun owners, due by the end of this month. He wants to extend that deadline. 

"If they do not recertify by January 31, they will effectively have their permits revoked and potentially be on the wrong side of the law and end up with criminal records," Ortt said.

But would any new gun control legislation pass? On the scale of the SAFE Act, it's unlikely. 

"Right now, I would think if the Republicans in the Senate could take that back, they would take it back and they wouldn't vote for it a second time," King said.

However, Democratic lawmakers this year are pushing for a ban on bump stocks, a device believed to have been used in the Las Vegas mass shooting last year, that helps a gun mimic automatic fire.  

"It's tightening up a legal loophole right now," said state Assemblywoman Pat Fahy (D-109). "There's no other reason to own a bump stock other than to your gun into a machine gun."

And then there's the question of how effective the law has been, passed in the emotion of a mass tragedy, a tragedy that has since been repeated again and again and again across the country. 

"For the past five years we've had the SAFE Act in New York, there are all sorts of laws nationally, there's all sorts of laws in individual states and the question I have for the anti-gunners who push more and more and more is how's that working out for you?" King said.

And gun control supporters have noted, too, that even if the front door closes, the back door of illegal weapons can still flow into the state. 

"The biggest problem of guns in New York isn't really the legal guns, it's the illegal guns that make their way into the state. Every illegal gun started out legal somewhere," said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D).