New Yorkers Against Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign are organizations noted for their intense commitment to sensible gun legislation. They understand that an individual has the right to hunt for sport and recreation, and they do not wish to prevent individuals from owning rifles with a legal permit for those purposes. Their focus is on preventing illegal handgun possession. Gun Free Kids is another organization that champions gun control, specifically focusing on the proliferation of guns on college campuses.
Kirsten Gillibrand, the junior senator from New York, was appointed by Governor David A. Patterson in 2009 to fill the US Senate seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton after she became US secretary of state that same year.
Senator Gillibrand was a resident of upstate New York, where guns were widely accepted, as was her embrace of the NRA’s interpretation of the Second Amendment—which prompted them to grant her an A rating. Known for her campaigning expertise, Senator Gillibrand was twice elected to the United States House of Representatives from upstate New York’s twentieth congressional district, and although a progressive democrat, she was an opponent of strict gun control. As a senator and a representative of the greater metropolitan New York area, she has made a sharp shift to the left, particularly on gun control. It is heartening to note that her focus is now on keeping illegal guns out of cities, tracking data on illegal gun traffickers, and closing the gun show loophole. She voted against allowing firearms to be checked in baggage on Amtrak trains, and she has now earned an F rating from the NRA.
Although she was originally a supporter of the NRA’s interpretation of the Second Amendment, Senator Gillibrand’s reversal on the issue of illegal gun possession will hopefully initiate stronger legislation.
In 2006, two mayors—New York’s Michael Bloomberg and Boston’s Thomas Menino—formed the coalition group Mayors Against Illegal Guns at Gracie Mansion in New York City. These two distinguished mayors serve as cochairs of the group, which now includes more than five hundred US mayors.
Yet, in 2013, in spite of valiant attempts to outlaw the possession of illegal handguns, brutal, senseless, gun-related murders are still committed with regularity.
Introduction
We live in a world of willful, unlawful violence. Gun violence has victimized many innocent people—not only those who are murdered but their families and friends as well. While mass deaths affect us all, we react more viscerally to the news of a young person’s death, especially under violent circumstances. The impact is even more shattering when we know the victim personally. Such a death sears the very existence of the people who loved and valued the murdered individual.
My daughter’s life was suddenly extinguished by gun violence on December 16, 2008. The devastating effect her death exerted and continues to exert on the lives of those who loved her emphasizes for us the compelling urgency to banish the scourge of gun violence largely perpetrated by the possession of illegal handguns.
Activists against the possession of illegal handguns say that the large number of deaths that occur can be translated in terms of thirty people per day, or the equivalent of a typical classroom of children.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed this statistic. The day after the Tucson shooting, he was invited to speak at the services of the Evangelical Crusade of Fishers of Men in Brooklyn on the first anniversary of the Haitian earthquake. He included the effects of the Arizona tragedy in his remarks, saying, “Thirty-four Americans are murdered—every single day. Tomorrow there will be another thirty-four. And so it will continue . . .”
Following is one personal story.
Chapter
1
“What the hell is going on here?”
Those were the last words Rachel heard her mother, Susie, say. They were talking on their cell phones. At first, Rachel heard rumbling, then cracking sounds. “Weird,” she thought. Then the connection was lost. Rachel redialed her mother’s cell phone. No ring. She tried again, but still nothing. Then she dialed her mother’s home phone. It rang, and then all she heard was her mother’s outgoing message on the answering machine.
Twenty-three-year-old Rachel was a practicing paralegal at a New York City law firm. Her mother lived in St. Louis and owned a newly opened exercise and fitness studio. Mother and daughter were chatting about their lives, respective work, and the weather. A major snowstorm had crossed the nation, resulting in frigid temperatures. Power outages and losses in electricity and heat were prevalent.
Rachel dialed her mother’s cell phone again. No ring. She redialed the home phone. Again, she just heard the outgoing message. No one answered—not her seventeen-year-old brother, Daniel, not her sixteen-year-old sister, Sarah, and not her mother.
“Strange,” Rachel said aloud to Stephanie, one of her coworkers.
“What’s strange?” Stephanie asked.
“I was talking to my mom, and all of a sudden her cell phone conked out.”
“Hmm, maybe it’s due to the storm. I heard that many phone lines have been knocked out.”
“Yeah, must be,” she said. “But I heard things that didn’t sound normal. I think I heard rumbling and then like a cracking sound. Then I thought I heard my mother say, ‘What the hell’s going on here?’ as she was talking to me. Then her phone went dead.”
“Why don’t you try calling her again?”
“I did—several times.”
“Try again.”
Rachel redialed her mother’s cell phone. Still no ring. She tried the home phone once more. Again, all she heard was the outgoing telephone message.
Chapter
2
These are the basic facts we know as given to us by the police. Kenneth Shepard and Lorenzo Wilson committed a burglary on December 16, 2008, and were interrupted by our daughter, Susie Schaffer. They were seventeen-year-old thugs who were just hanging out at Shepard’s house because they were expelled from school for mischievous conduct. Shepard was also wearing an electronic bracelet that was supposed to keep track of his location.
The police characterized Wilson as “pure evil,” a thug who had persuaded Shepard to come along even though Wilson had a gun in his possession. With nothing better to do, they decided to go on another rampage as they had in the past. Wilson boasted that he had found a gun, but Shepard was reluctant to accompany Wilson when he learned of it.
The police told us that Shepard and Wilson spent many hours wandering around the neighborhood, knocking on doors and ringing doorbells to see if anyone was home in order to break into a house, any house. They had no luck until they arrived at our daughter’s house. We know that they tried to get in through the front door, but it was securely locked. The entrance through the back was accessible because the screen door was broken.
We also learned that upon entry Shepard heard the television set playing. When he was questioned by the police, he said he had wanted to leave out of fear that someone might be home, but Wilson convinced him to stay. Shepard walked into the kitchen and noticed Sarah’s picture on the refrigerator. Again, he told Wilson he wanted to leave—he had recognized Sarah, who went to the same high school—and again, Wilson was adamant that they stay. Shepard told the police that Wilson insisted they stay because “they didn’t come for nothin’.” He ordered Shepard to check upstairs while he looked downstairs to see what they could steal. They both rummaged through the house and took a camera, a laptop, and a cell phone that belonged to Daniel and Sarah, our grandchildren.
Wilson was surprised by Susie’s unexpected arrival as he opened the refrigerator. Rachel was speaking to Susie on her cell phone as she interrupted the burglary and