Friday’s shooting deaths of 26 people in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school – including 20 young children – have sparked calls for tougher gun control legislation from the North Shore’s state and federal representatives.
The shooter, Adam Lanza, carried out the attack with a Bushmaster semi-automatic AR-15 rifle – a copy of a Colt rifle whose sale was prohibited by the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which lapsed in 2004 and has not been resigned. Lanza also used high-capacity magazines, which allow extended firing without having to reload.
Both assault weapons and extended magazines are flash points in the debate over gun legislation, and two of New York’s staunchest gun control advocates – state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) – think it is time to crack down.
Schimel is one of the leading advocates for gun control in the state Assembly, and has made microstamping – the laser-etching of a unique signature on the inside of a gun so its spent cartridges can be easily traced by police – a signature issue during her tenure in Albany. A law to require microstamping has passed the Assembly multiple times, but is yet to overcome Republican resistance in the state Senate.
Speaking to the Great Neck News following a meeting with New Yorkers Against Gun Violence on Monday, Schimel said the tragedy in Connecticut made clear the need for strong action on gun control.
“It’s a crisis of unbelievable proportion,” Schimel said.
She also castigated fellow lawmakers for failing to pass gun-control measures in the wake of other deadly shootings, including the mass killing of students at Virginia Tech in 2007 and this summer’s killings at an Aurora, Colo. movie theater.
“I’m sad, but I’m also angry. I’m angry at my colleagues,” Schimel said. “They have their canned responses. It’s disgraceful.”
Schimel laid out a policy platform she plans on advocating for in response to the shooting, along with New Yorkers Against Gun Violence and state Assemblyman Brian Kavanaugh (D-Manhattan).
Among the measures Schimel supports is a tightening of the state’s assault weapons ban. New York already prohibits the private possession of an assault weapon, which is defined as any gun having two of a list of features defined under state law, including a telescoping stock, a pistol grip or a bayonet mount. The ban also applies to a specific list of gun models – including the AR-15, which is a semiautomatic version of the military’s M-16 rifle.
“[What] makes it very difficult to enforce is it has two characteristics – what we would do is have one characteristic that would render it unable to be sold or possessed in New York State,” said Schimel.
Schimel also endorsed a renewed effort at passing microstamping legislation, strict licensing for gun sellers as well as owners, a uniform background check for private as well as public sales of guns and ammunition, a limit of one hand gun purchase per month, and mandatory training for gun retailers to prevent the sale of guns to “straw purchasers” who could then turn the gun over to an unlicensed person.
“These are not new bills. These are bills that have been vetted in the community… when you want to talk about really making a difference, this is a way to do that,” said Schimel.
“The fact that we have to even question it is incredible.”
Schimel also said she supports making the possession of “community guns” – guns shared among multiple users – a felony.
Schimel, Kavanaugh and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence were scheduled to hold a press conference on Thursday to kick off what they hope will be a speedy legislative process. Schimel said she hoped to begin discussions on the proposed laws when the next legislative session begins on Jan. 9.
“We want this to happen in January. We want this to happen right away,” she said.
Past shootings have failed to spur legislative changes, but Schimel said she believes the scale of Friday’s tragedy has changed public thought on gun control.
“The equivalent of a classroom is shot and killed every day [in the U.S.]… to me, nothing is different. You have people being killed,” Schimel said. “But to people who are not as involved [in gun control advocacy]… when you have little children – five year olds, six year olds, going off to school – I think this has changed the consciousness of most Americans. I have to believe this is a different issue.”
State Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) did not return a request for comment.
At the federal level, McCarthy and Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) are voicing strong support for gun control measures that have failed to gain traction during President Barack Obama’s first term, and McCarthy is co-sponsoring a reintroduction of the federal Assault Weapons Ban in the House.
McCarthy is one of the strongest voices for gun control in the House; she was elected on a gun-control platform after her husband was killed and her son injured in a 1993 mass shooting at the Merillon Avenue LIRR station.
The push for an updated assault weapons ban has gained momentum among Democrats, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introducing the measure in the Senate and Obama voicing support. House and Senate Republicans have not staked out a public position on efforts to renew the ban.
Since Friday’s killings, McCarthy has appeared on news programs and released statements calling for stronger gun laws.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions right now, but one thing is clear – there’s too much gun violence in our country. These shootings are becoming all too common, and it’s too easy for dangerous people to get the weapons that help them perform mass executions like today’s,” McCarthy said in a statement. “Leaders in Washington from both parties, and groups like the NRA, all say that now is not the time to talk about how gun safety laws can save lives in America. I agree, now is not the time to talk about gun laws – the time for that conversation was long before all those kids in Connecticut died today.”
Both McCarthy and Israel are advocating for the passage of two of McCarthy’s bills that are currently languishing in committee.
The Fix Gun Check act would withhold funding from states that do not provide complete records to the FBI’s national gun background check system, and the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act would prohibit the sale or importation of high capacity magazines.
“We must mourn the loss of lives, we must repair broken hearts…and we must pass measures to reduce the need to mourn lives lost and hearts broken to gun violence,” said Israel in a statement. “I will continue to push my colleagues who have historically opposed such steps to join you and me in thinking differently.”
