BUFFALO, N.Y. -- An armed shooter killed three students and three staffers this week at a Nashville private Christian elementary school.
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence Executive Director Rebecca Fischer, criticizing Tennessee's weak gun control laws, said it's all too common but remains horrifying.
"We're talking about reverberations of trauma among the school community, among the larger community that will continue to go unaddressed," she said.
While Fischer said New York already has some of the strongest restrictions on guns in the country, the Nashville murders hammer home the need for more state legislation.
"You have a gun violence crisis in the state of New York, largely because there are such weak federal gun laws and other states have such weak gun laws that we continue to be plagued by trafficking from out of state," Fischer said.
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence is advocating this year for strategies and initiatives specifically focused on helping Black and brown communities disproportionately impacted by the violence. The priorities include:
- The Fair Access to Victims Compensation Act, which aims to expand and make access to the state's victims fund more equitable
- More funding for community-based and hospital violence intervention services
- The School Anti-Violence Education Act
"This bill would fund evidence-based gun violence prevention programming during the school day and after school to really provide more trauma support, more knowledge about the gun violence crisis and ways to empower our youth," Fischer said.
The group is also continuing to advocate for an overhaul of New York's wrongful death statute. The Legislature passed a bill with bipartisan support last session that, among other things, would allows family members of gun violence victims to sue for emotional damages.
The governor, however, vetoed it, citing potentially significant economic impacts and calling for more research.
"We were very disappointed that the governor vetoed a bill that had bipartisan support and passed both houses of the Legislature that really would have responded to the calls of the victims of the Buffalo shooting and other individuals who are grieving for their families," Fischer said.
The bill's sponsors expect to move forward with it again after budget negotiations are finished. Fischer said she doesn't know what potential revisions it may include but expects strong support again.
"Given the fact that the governor continues to say that gun violence victims are a priority and that she wants to support, particularly the community of Buffalo, I would hope that and I'm optimistic she'll get on board this time," she said.