‘We Have to Be Louder’: Nyack, Rockland Leaders Talk Gun Control

Today marks the six-month anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary—and while gun laws have since been altered in New York, federal policy has yet to change.

This was a point of discussion Wednesday evening, when community members gathered at Nyack Library to discuss gun reform and watch the Sundance selected film Living For 32, which explores the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting.

The event was organized by Gina Daschbach, co-chair of the Hudson Valley chapter of the activist foundation Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

“I was brought to my knees after Sandy Hook,” said Daschbach, a Piermont mother of two. In an effort to find her voice, she discovered Moms Demand Action through their Facebook page, became a member, and later, a co-chair.

“The voice of irrational fear-mongering hate is so loud,” Daschbach said. “We have to be louder.” Daschbach hopes that through small-scale events, ordinary citizens will be motivated to take gun reform action.

The audience of 25 was mostly mothers, with some exceptions—like Suffern mayor, County Executive candidate and parent Dagan LaCorte.

“Like so many Americans, I feel very strongly that our nation needs sensible gun control to prevent these horrific acts of violence in our schools,” Lacorte said.

The documentary

The documentary Living For 32 told the story of Virginia Tech Massacre survivor turned gun control lobbyist Colin Goddard.

While Goddard is in favor universal background checks and putting restraints on which gun models can be sold—like AK-47s—he is a firm believer in the Second Amendment.

Goddard said he himself is likely to own a gun to protect his family if he ends up living in an unsafe area.

At many points throughout the film, Goddard proved just how easy it is to buy a gun in America. At one gun show, Colin bought a gun without a background check or even an ID. His only requirement was verbal confirmation that he was a resident of the state and over 18.

It is practices like this that Goddard wants to see changed on a federal level.

A Rockland panel on guns

After the film’s completion, District Attorney Thomas Zugibe, Reverend Gordon Bailey of the Unitarian Univeralist Congregation of Rockland and Neurosurgeon at Nyack Hospital Dr. Daniel Spitzer took to the floor to answer questions about gun control on a local level. Rockland County Legislator Nancy Low-Hogan moderated the panel.

Low-Hogan asked Reverend Bailey to respond to claims that gun ownership is a God-given right.

“God could never actively participate in the destruction [caused by guns],” Bailey said. Bailey added that our society has lost our way, and that we need to find a way to love each other more wholly and authentically.

 “Get your rabbi, your priest, your imam to do something,” he continued. “It is a theological issue and they should preach about it.”

District Attorney Zugibe provided a legal perspective, and referenced the New York Safe Act, a law that puts stricter constraints on the purchase and usage of guns.

“When Newtown happened, Governor Cuomo acted quickly and passed the law,” Zugibe said. He argued that passing the law was the right move, and it should not be repealed, as many county legislators are seeking to do. Instead, some tweaking to the law needs to be done, he said.

However, in Zugibe’s opinion, the biggest issue is the fact that most of the guns in New York are from outside the state, and a result gun trafficking.

“Someone can easily fill up a duffel bag of guns and ammo in another state, and bring it back to New York,” Zugibe said.

“The only solution is a federal response,” he added.

Dr. Spitzer described the state of gun violence in America as a public safety concern with a high cost, both financially and emotionally.

“It takes a generation or more to change society’s actions,” Spitzer said. He made reference to seatbelts, and how while today around 80 percent of drivers buckle up just 30 years ago the number was around 33 percent.

Spitzer also made a shocking comparison about gun related deaths.

“Six-hundred deaths a week [the number of gun-related deaths in America] is equivalent to three major jet liners crashing a week with no survivors. ” Spitzer said. “If three major jet crashes occurred in a week, would any of us book a flight to Florida?” 

Spitzer also questioned why our society takes gun related deaths so lightly.

“I’m hoping organizations like this change the way people perceive the situation,” he said.