Local Officials, Residents Rally for Gun Safety Legislation in White Plains
Following the recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, dozens of local residents rallied in front of White Plains City Hall on Aug. 17, one of a reported over 100 similar “Recess Rallies” for federal gun safety events scheduled for every state in the nation last weekend.
The White Plains event, which an organizer said drew 200 attendees, was sponsored by Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense Legislation.
The rallies were held to demand that US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell call back the chamber from its summer recess and pass gun safety legislation, including a background check law, which have been approved by the House of Representatives.
White Plains Mayor Tom Roach said the need for federal gun safety is a sentiment shared by both Democratic and Republican mayors throughout the country. “To have the US Conference of Mayors two weeks ago circulate a letter demanding that Mitch McConnell bring the Senate back to work to do something for this country, signed by mayors of both parties, says a lot about how important this issue is to Americans,” Roach said.
Roach said he is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which was created by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Roach said now police officers are being trained for active shooter situations. “It wasn’t this way in the past,” he said. Police officers often respond to an active shooter incident with a handgun and standard issue protective vest possibly facing a gunman who has a military weapon wearing body armor, Roach said. On Aug. 16 mayors and police chiefs from around the country participated in a conference call conducted by the US Conference of Mayors to hear from the mayor and former police chief of Orlando, FL “to tell us what they had to deal with” during the Pulse night club massacre in 2016.
The majority of Americans and gun owners favor reasonable gun safety regulations, Roach said, adding he had been frustrated by a lack of legislative progress on the issue in the past. However, through the efforts of gun safety advocates, “you flipped the table over and changed everything” in New York State regarding gun regulation, Roach said.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said, “Stop the violence and do sensible things to protect our people. Why are we here? I was at a concert last night. What do you do at a concert? You dance. You clap. You have fun. Why was I thinking about where the exits were? Why was I thinking that something very awful could happen at this concert?”
“We’re here today to tell the US Senate to do their job,” Stewart-Cousins said. “We’re the Senate (NYS Sentate) that really expanded the background checks. We’re the Senate that says you’ve got to lock up your guns. We’re the Senate that banned assault rifles. We’re the Senate that refuses to arm teachers.”
Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-Harrison) thanked “all the moms who are demanding action.”
“Unfortunately, there are some on the other side of the aisle who won’t even come back, not even to background checks,” Lowey said, adding, “Why should assault weapons be on the streets of our cities and why should weapons of any kind be on (college ) campuses in the United States of America?”
“We should bring the Senate back and make sure that every person must stand up and vote,” Lowey said.
White Plains resident the Rev.Colon-Berezin, minister of Christian education for the Scarsdale Congregational Church, UCC, led the attendees in the chant –“No more silence. End gun violence.”
“We will not be silent about the crisis of violence in this country any longer,” Colon-Berezin said. “We will not be silent about our history, our inequality, our gun epidemic. We will not be silent for one more election cycle, not for one more year, not for one more day, not even for one more minute. We will not be silent because the brokenness in society has broken too many of our hearts. Because this moment demands a moral reckoning about who we are as a nation. We will not be silent until Washington bends toward the will of the people and away from the will of the almighty dollar.”
Irvington resident Barry Graubart, New York State deputy chapter leader, for advocacy for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, noted he was wearing wristbands on his arms. “These wristbands represent friends of mine who have lost their loved ones to gun violence,” he said.
Sleepy Hollow resident Adriana Pentz, a member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, shared her story while holding a picture of her brother Luke holding her daughter. Her brother was 30 when he took his own life using a gun, Pentz said.
“My brother struggled, as we all do, with things in our lives,” Pentz said. “I wish that ending his life with a gun was never an option. Two-thirds of firearms deaths in this country are suicides. Most people who attempt suicide do not die unless they use a gun. Eighty-five percent of suicide attempts with guns end in death.”
