The Growing Need for Gun Policy in the United States

How will the United States create effective gun policy in a country terrorized with the constant fear of another mass shooting?

Unfortunately for industry experts, advocates, legislators, and survivors, there doesn’t seem to be a plausible answer in the current government administration.

‘Gun Policy in the United States,’ a joint October 17 event hosted by the Urban and Social Policy (USP) concentration and Civic & Voter Engagement Coalition (CiVEC), brought organizers, survivors and field experts to SIPA to speak on the current state of gun policy in the country—or lack thereof.

Panelists included advocate and survivor Carmen Lodato, an Everytown for Gun Safety Fellow; Dr. Sonali Rajan, a school violence prevention expert and associate professor of health education at Teachers College; Gays Against Guns organizer Maryellen Novak; and Stephanie Gent, managing director of marketing and strategy for Everytown for Gun Safety.

USP director Ester Fuchs opened the event and introduced New York State assembly member Jo Anne Simon (D-Brooklyn), who has sponsored several pieces of of gun policy legislation in the Assembly revolving around school safety and rifle permitting. She spoke about the strides New York State made with the Red Flag Law that bars the selling of weapons to those who pose extreme risks, or the SAFE Act—enacted after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut—that broadly bans assault weapons and modifications in the state.

“We have to make it less attractive to young men to go and get a gun to impress their girlfriend or for their girlfriend to realize that it's not really a good thing for them to have a gun,” Simon said, adding “if you got a gun then you’re more likely to use a gun.”

Each panelist discussed how they found themselves advocating for gun safety measures, and how gun violence had affected their lives. The audience audibly reacted to Lodato’s story.

“I got involved in the gun violence prevention movement after my mom was killed at our home in Alexandria,” Lodato explained. “She opened the front door and a man that was a stranger to us shot her multiple times.”

“I got this phone call while I was in the airport, but, you know, it completely changed my life,” Lodato said. “And that's when I realized that gun violence can happen to any of us.”

Novak pointed to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that counts the death toll of people who have lost their lives to gun violence. The number was at 31,050 at the beginning of the panel—for 2019 alone.

“Now step up and actually do something about it, because we need help.” The number rose by 15 by the end of the panel.

CiVEC president Alexandra Yellin MPA ’20 moderated the panel discussion that followed. When Yellin prompted if mental illness causes gun violence, Rajan responded that “it’s a very easy place to put the blame… mental illness exists across the world.” Instead, she said, “the American issue of gun violence is uniquely an American issue.”

Gent also took issue with the rhetoric of mental illness is to blame for increased gun violence.

“This talking point exists to distract and to discourage, and the unintended con--or maybe the intended consequence of the talking point on this issue is to scrutinize those who are affected by mental illness, which is unacceptable.”

Novak answered Yellin’s following question regarding whether the United States has a violent culture in terms of movies and video games.

“If you’re going to have a gun, you’re more likely to use it.” Novak evoked the recent Fort Worth shooting in which an officer killed a woman playing video games with her nephew.

“The issue is that the people who are in power and the ones that are perpetrating these lies essentially are the ones that are putting the population at risk.”

Gent delivered a somber ending, narrating that although there has been plenty of progress at the city and state level, the same sense of urgency doesn’t exist on a national scale.

“I think the heartening part of it is not that we have tried everything and nothing has worked,” she began. “It’s that our lawmakers can try very little at the federal level to prevent this from happening in our nation.”

The panelists did say there are useful tools nonetheless.

“Universal background checks, big deal. Red Flag laws, big deal. These are not big asks. These are very reasonable solutions that we’re asking for, that are legitimate and are sensible, versus the ones that are out there on the table and are backed by the NRA, that are backed by these corrupt politicians.”

Lodato said there’s one solution. “Bother your electeds. A lot.”

— Catherina Gioino MPA ’20