"Will the real Kirsten Gillibrand please stand up?" That’s what some New York papers are asking, particularly about the politician’s gun policy.

Gillibrand, who represented gun-friendlier upstate New York in the House before she took over Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, has long been a friend to the gun industry, and received a 100-percent rating from the National Rifle Association. Downstate voters, meanwhile, were not impressed and pushed Gillibrand to take a more liberal stand against firearms. Then, on Monday, after visiting the parents of a Brooklyn teen killed by gun violence, Gillibrand said she would work to end illegal (key word: "illegal") gun trafficking and would work to give susceptible teens more access to after-school programs, job training and other alternatives to joining gangs.

"There’s a very big difference between making sure hunters can hunt in upstate New York, because it’s part of our heritage and our history and the Second Amendment to our Constitution, and fighting against gun violence," Gillibrand told reporters. "And those are values and views that I’ve always held — that we do need to fight against gun violence. We do need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals."

Gillibrand says that’s not the same as changing her stance on guns; after all, she did support a House bill aimed at ending gun violence. But that doesn’t mean she’s not catching criticism from those happy to lob it against her over the issue.

The New York Daily News says, "A cynical newspaper guy might say Gillibrand was never so much pro-gun as pro-Kirsten, and the change only reflects a broader constituency than the rural hunters she represented as an upstate congresswoman."

And from a New York Post editorial today: "Indeed, Gillibrand, formerly a single-term centrist congresswoman from a Republican-leaning Upstate district, is running as fast as possible from every position that used to separate her from the state’s Democratic elite," including on issues such as guns, immigration and gay marriage. "Those New Yorkers now getting their first good look at their new senator are entitled to wonder whether they can believe a word she says."

Maybe we should give Gillibrand a break and see what she does before putting her before a firing squad.