State attorney general candidate Eric Schneiderman’s “Justice on Main Street” slogan seemed eerily relevant Sunday as he spoke about gun violence to a crowd on Buffalo’s East Side.

Just three weeks after the City Grill shootings on Main Street downtown, Schneiderman appeared at Frederick Douglass Towers to talk about his strategy for curbing the flow of illegal guns.

“We have an epidemic of shootings across the state,” the Manhattan Democrat said during an interview before his brief speech to a crowd of about 75 people.

Schneiderman, who attended the double funeral of cousins Tiffany Wilhite and Shawn-Tia McNeil, two of the four people killed in the City Grill shootings, promised to make illegal guns a priority if elected attorney general.

One of his first steps would be the creation of a multistate coalition of lawmakers and law enforcement officials to deal with cross-border smuggling of guns.

The coalition would share information on gun crimes and sales, he said, citing figures that suggest 90 percent of the illegal guns in New York are smuggled in from states with weaker gun laws.

“There’s a small number of criminals who are responsible for diverting guns,” said Schneiderman, a state senator. “This would help us track those people.”

He also wants to pass a “microstamping” law that would require guns be manufactured so that each one left a unique mark on each shell fired from that weapon.

“That would be a great tool for law enforcement, he told The Buffalo News.

Schneiderman, a former deputy sheriff and co-chairman of Legislators Against Illegal Guns, a national group dedicated to reducing gun violence, is touring upstate as part of his “Justice on Main Street” tour.

He spoke at three churches in Niagara Falls on Sunday after stopping in Syracuse on Thursday and Rochester on Friday.

During his final stop here in Buffalo, he received a surprise endorsement from the Rev. Darius G. Pridgen of True Bethel Baptist Church.

Pridgen, a candidate for Common Council, met Schneiderman at the funeral at his church two weeks ago and came away impressed by his message of nonviolence.

“He was in town and heard about the funeral,” Pridgen said Sunday. “And he thought it was important, if he was going to be attorney general, that he be connected to the community.”

Pridgen encouraged the people in the crowd to vote for Schneiderman, one of five Democrats in the primary for attorney general.

The others are Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester County, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, former Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo and former federal prosecutor Sean Coffey.

Staten Island District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan is the Republican candidate.

Schneiderman also has the backing of Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown and Erie County Legislature Chairwoman Barbara

A. Miller-Williams.

pfairbanks@buffnews.comnull