Chappaqua Rally Calls on Congress to Return for Gun Reform Votes

Supporters of strong national gun legislation once again gathered at the gazebo in Chappaqua Saturday morning demanding Congress return from its summer recess to consider new laws to save lives.

Organizers of the rally urging for gun reform, which drew more than people, along with about an hour’s worth of speakers vowed to keep up the political pressure until action is taken to curb gun violence throughout the United States. The gazebo on South Greeley Avenue has become a familiar meeting place for vigils and rallies following many of the mass shootings that have taken place over the years.

“You have a choice and we need your help. Please fight alongside us,” said Erin Fuller Brian, co-president of Brady Westchester and a survivor of the October 2017 Las Vegas shooting, who led the hour-long event. “We cannot let this conversation die once the shootings are out of the headlines. We must continue action until we see results. We must not only have safer schools and concerts, but we also must have safer streets for communities of color.”

Brian and others called on members of Congress – most notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – to return to Washington and vote to support background checks. They also want to see an assault weapons ban; a law authorizing Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO), commonly referred to as the red flag bill that would temporarily take away guns if a person is deemed a threat; a gun buy-back program; safe storage laws; and gun-free college campuses.

Joining the adults were high school and college students who have been inspired to act with the spiraling number of mass shootings dating back to the December 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Rachel Kern, co-vice president of Team Enough NY and a student at Briarcliff High School, said she was in third grade at the time of that shooting and recalled how she and her classmates were addressed by teachers and staff about lock-down drills.

Nearly seven years later nothing has changed on the national level, Kern said.

“The government won’t protect us so we have to protect ourselves,” she said. “I’m going into my sophomore year and since Sandy Hook 2,184 mass shootings have taken place. It’s been half of my life and nothing has been done.”

Various elected officials from the area or their surrogates spoke passionately about the urgency to maintain momentum. Outgoing County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz (D-Somers) said his generation of officials have largely failed the country on this issue. He remained hopeful that the younger generation, which has been energized, can break the inertia.

“If we work toward change at the ballot box that will change and maybe that will get us comprehensive background checks, bans on assault rifles, safe storage laws, we may not have to build traps in our schools and third-graders will not have to be afraid of, will not have to be scared to go to Walmart, and we will have a safer, better America,” Kaplowitz said.

Despite New York State having passed gun legislation following the Sandy Hook shooting and approved additional measures earlier this year, there are too many states across the country that are contributing to the scourge of gun violence. New Castle Councilwoman Ivy Pool said New York’s legislation is effective but it’s just one of 50 state, some of which have far weaker laws.

Pool, one of a group of local elected officials throughout northern Westchester who attended, said she was also tired of being told that the gun violence issue is not a local matter and that she should “stay in your lane.”

“Make this your single issue,” she said. “I refuse to vote for someone who is supported by the NRA or their acolytes. I refuse to vote for anyone who has donated or offered support or has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association. Don’t tell me it’s a local issue because as a locally elected official it is the top priority every day to protect the residents of this town, especially my children and all of your children.”

While nearly everyone at the event, one Chappaqua gun owner who attended Saturday’s rally criticized the overwhelming sentiment. The resident, Frank, who asked that his last name not be used, said he believed that many of the measures called for by gun control supporters would result in unintended consequences.

For example, Frank said he knows a gun owner who was recently divorced and has his firearms confiscated under the state’s new red flag law.

He said that he believes his right to own a gun is under attack.

“I think if you enforce the laws that are in place right now, I think that would be much better than trying to enact new legislation,” Frank said.

Brian said that she did not want to learn about more deaths or have anyone else experience the fear that she and her husband had running for their lives in Las Vegas.

“I’d like to think that the numbers of shootings that have happened in the past are what’s going to push people over the edge and I have kind of held onto that hope that this is going to be the on that changes things,” she said. “I don’t know that it will but I have to hope for that.”

Brian called on advocates of stronger gun legislation to text Emergency to 877877, which will allow the public to register their comments to Sen. McConnell’s office asking for the background checks legislation to be brought forward.

For more information on the efforts of the organization Brady, visit www.bradyunited.org.