I grew up in upstate New York
My family has lived there since 1757! I got a pistol permit at age 18. Yet I left nearly 30 years ago, end except for 5 visits (the last two to bury my parents) I haven't been back.
New York State has always been held hostage to the mass of votes in NYC. You may think it is bad about guns, but really, it is bad about everything. Families living on the same property for nearly 200 years having to get permission from the state (and local govt) to put up a garden tool shed! Registration of every kind of vehicle, whether it runs on the road, off it, in the water or in the air. Mandatory vehicle "safety" inspections. Just before I left, it became mandatory to attend a safety course in order to get a pistol permit. Oh, and the permit? Guns listed by make, caliber, serial# and barrel length. Those guns, and only those guns are permitted to you. Permit not valid in NYC. No concealed carry. Application needed 5 sets of fingerprints, 4 photographs, 3 character references, and after investigation, it was entirely at the discretion of the local judge to approve it or not. One judge would never approve anything with a listed purpose as self protection. A different judge wouldn't approve anything else. And that was 30 years ago! I shudder to think about what it must be like today.
To give you some idea, about 4 years ago, I got a letter from Saratoga County, State of New York, telling me that since I was no longer a resident, that my pistol permit was no longer valid. (I had not been a resident for 25 years) They wanted to know what happened to the guns listed on my permit, and, they wanted the paper permit (about the size of a driver's license) BACK! The word anal doesn't even begin to do justice to this degree of fixation!
My heart does go out to all those shooters and gun owners who, no matter how hard they try, are ground into the dirt by the overwhelming majority numbers of the urban eloi. The politicians are quite aware of the power they control, NYC has about half of the state's population, and as of 30 years ago when I left, they (as a group) were so far out of touch with the reality of the rest of the state as to be comical, if it was not so serious.
Growing up there, I knew from my family that it was not always as bad. Generations past, if you lived outside the major metro areas, you were pretty much left alone, except, of course, for them taking and spending your tax money on themselves. We used to gripe about that, but what could we do? Democracy at work. Those people running the Empire state have certainly turned it into their empire, and they run it as they see fit. They are moving "Excelsior" but they are standing with one of their boots on our neck!
I wish it was otherwise.