Rep. Maloney Asked Students About Gun Control: They Answered
- Alexandra Pierson
- Mar 30, 2018
- 4 min read
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) heard students’ pleas for gun control at Upper East Side Eleanor Roosevelt High School on Wednesday, in the wake of last month’s fatal mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
“Students are leading it. it’s gonna be different now,” said Rep. Maloney. “For the first time I feel a change and I think it’s coming from the young people.”
The Parkland, Fla. shooting, which cost 17 peoples’ lives and injured 17 more, marks the 18th school shooting and 30th mass shooting of 2018, according to Everytown for Gun Safety and the Gun Violence Archive. The GVA defines a mass shooting as any time four or more people, apart from the shooter, are shot or killed in a single incident.
The tragedy in Parkland has ignited a national debate about gun control, with advocates facing a great deal of pushback from Second Amendment organizations like the NRA and leading to student-led initiatives including the ENOUGH National School Walkout and March for Our Lives.
The congresswoman for New York’s East Side 12th District was joined on a panel by Debbie Weir, senior managing director of Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America; Shaina Harrison, program director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence; Monica Atiya, founder of the New York Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence; and NYC Councilman Ben Kallos.
While the experts were there to provide answers, some of the day’s most insightful remarks came from students.
“Omnibus basically repealed the Dickey Amendment in a way,” began Roosevelt freshman Adam Vincent’s question, “but the only way that the CDC can study gun violence is if they are given the funds. How would you convince your Republican colleagues to give the CDC the funds they need?”
He is referring to the 1996 provisional mandate known as the Dickey Amendment, after Rep. Jay Dickey (R-AR), which for many years prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using funds to research gun violence on the grounds that it advocated for gun control. Rep. Maloney, a long-time advocate of gun control, expressed her encouragement for the recently-passed omnibus spending bill that would, in part, permit the CDC to research gun violence.
The congresswoman also discussed gun control legislation which she has written and sponsored, including the Handgun Trigger Safety Act, Firearm Risk Protection Act, and Gun Trafficking Prevention Act.
In response to Vincent’s question, panelist Monica Atiya said, “That is exactly the center issue of the entire process going forward. Dedicated research funds are what’s going to make the difference.”
While many policymakers may be seeing dollar signs, students are looking at something far more valuable: human lives.
Roosevelt sophomore and recent transfer student from Philadelphia, Eric Wong, explained, “I actually lost five of my childhood friends this year due to gun violence, and I speak for them. I really do not want to see my friends in a casket and know that nothing’s really been happening.”
In addition to voicing their support for the assault weapons ban and universal background checks, the panelists emphasized that gun violence is a public health issue.
“Adding mental health to the background check should be a no brainer,” Rep. Maloney said.
City Councilman Kallos echoed Eric’s frustration, asking of the crowd, “How many of the folks who are students feel that they have a social worker, or a psychologist, or a psychiatrist that they can go to for free if they are having a tough day and need somebody to talk to?”
Not a single student raised his or her hand.
While the Parkland tragedy has started a real conversation about school shootings, gun violence is not limited to shootings that receive media attention.
“At lot of times, in the communities that I work in, with young people that are disproportionately affected by gun violence, in communities that are riddled with gun violence, the cameras are never really there,” said panelist Shaina Harrison. “People are not necessarily concerned with young people who are dying in their communities, so a lot of times they feel as if they are left out of this conversation. A lot of these young people are facing trauma and gun violence every single day. There’s a mass shooting in their world pretty much every day. I ask the young people that I work with, ‘raise your hand if you know someone who’s been killed;’ Every single one of them will raise their hand.”
Winter Minisee, Los Angeles high school student and member of Women’s March Youth EMPOWER—the coalition which organized the March 14 national school walkout—voiced her concerns regarding urban gun violence and police brutality in predominantly black and brown communities.
“Gun violence does not always show up in the form of mass shootings by—most of the time—white men. It’s actually something that happens every day and cannot be prevented by just banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines,” said Winter. “This wasn’t an anomaly.”
The only person of color on the panel, Shaina Harrison, advised students to join political advocacy groups to ensure that they are fostering an intersectional dialogue.
“Question the movements that you join,” Harrison said. “Look at who’s on the panel. Is the panel intersectional? Are they talking about gun violence in a holistic way? Look around and see who is in the room.”
Congresswoman Maloney concluded the discussion by encouraging audience members to attend another meeting on April 7.
Inspired by Eric’s story, she said, “I was thinking maybe the Democrats should organize at least once a week to come and share stories from across America from victims of what gun violence has meant to them, to bring the stories into the homes, not the statistics.”
While students said the congresswoman’s visit was a step in the right direction, they voiced concern that there is still a long way to go in terms of reform.
“What’s actually going on?” wonders Eric, “Why is it taking quite some time even though there are major events, like shootings, in general? Why is this not being taken up on as soon as possible?”
Winter tells me the conversation with Rep. Maloney is not finished.
“No one really answered my questions surrounding police and demilitarizing police. There’s actual law enforcement who have been exporting gun violence in our communities erratically, which needs to be addressed quickly,” she says. “Just last week, Stephon Clark was shot 20 times in his backyard, but that wasn’t even brought up in this conversation once.”
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