Cuomo is right: Gun violence is a disaster emergency

One of the most difficult moments in my life was looking into the eyes of parents whose first-grade children were blown away by a man with a highpowered

Diana Urban is a former Connecticut state legislator and is president of Protecting Kids and Pets Partnership. She lives in Chatham. Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle. These children were just beginning their life journey at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

When Sandy Hook happened, I was the chair of the Committee on Children in the Connecticut Legislature. In the mass shooting ’s aftermath I met with every one of the bereaved parents. I felt like I needed to say something profound and yet all

I could do was reach out my arms and cry with them.

I vowed that whatever these parents needed in order to find some semblance of relief, I would do. After what felt like an endless debate, the General Assembly finally managed to get a limit on magazine size, background checks for all gun sales and some redefinition of the meaning of “assault weapon.” But what was really needed was national comprehensive legislation implementing commonsense gun reform.

The days following the shooting were fraught. Our Department of Children and Families commissioner, Joette Katz, was doing everything in her power to respond to the tragedy. Counselors, social workers, psychologists, and therapy dogs were all rushed to Sandy Hook.

The horror of what had happened could not be ignored or denied. The searing loss of 20 first-grade children and six brave staff members at the hands of a gunman was there for all to see. Children slain in such a horrific manner that forensic experts told parents not to view their child’s mangled body but to try and hold on to happier memories.

It was unfathomable to any

one who had any direct contact with those impacted by the massacre that the federal government would not now respond with some simple, long-overdue national reforms on guns and gun sales.

It took an extra level of courage and commitment for these traumatized parents to travel to Washington in order to shine a bright light on the terrifying specter of their loss, with the hope that through their loss they could prevent further violence to children and families.

Many words of sympathy were spoken by legislators, including the now-overworn expression of “thoughts and prayers,” but in the end nothing was done. Nothing. And too soon the Parkland, Fla., school was a target. This time 14 highschoolers and three staff people were the victims. In an amazing response, the kids from Parkland decided to fight back and organize “March for our Lives” protests all across the country. Yet again, even with these young voices crying out their pain and fear, nothing was done in our nation’s capitol.

And now New York state — which promptly passed the SAFE Act in the aftermath of Sandy Hook — has again stepped up to the plate with meaningful reforms that actually try to get at the roots of the gun violence problem, which is now epidemic across America. Measures include creating a program that targets gun violence hotspots, spending $138 million in intervention, prevention and jobs programs to engage at-risk youth, and a program aimed at strengthening police/community relations.

What happens? Immediate pushback on this common-sense approach that recognizes that we need to learn much more about gun violence, including why people resort to shootings and why in this country and culture it is so easy to get weapons that are clearly not meant for hunting but are capable of killing vast numbers of people in a short amount of time.

We need to reconsider our whole approach to gun violence, and our governor is on the right track in declaring a gun violence disaster emergency in New York. Hopefully, more states will follow New York’s lead and we can move to a more productive phase of debate and discussion about gun violence nationwide.