As a little girl, I was one of the few children who was not allowed to own a water gun.
My mother opposed not only toys that were “representative of guns” but also violent cartoons and video games. She believed that the sale of such paraphernalia marketed to children led to adolescents and adults who perpetrated gun violence. Unfortunately, my mother was ahead of her time.
While I did not understand her reasoning at the time and believed that my own mother was setting me up to be bully bait, she could not have been more spot-on in her beliefs. As many other millennials did in 1999, I sat on my mother’s bed, scared, as we watched the news coverage from Columbine High School.
These experiences led to my support for candidates who support common-sense gun legislation. As such, I’m so proud to support State Senator Anna Kaplan’s campaign for re-election to New York State Senate District 7.
We have experienced an unprecedented and unacceptable rise in gun violence over the last two decades. Since 2009, there have been 279 mass shootings in the United States. Every day, 12 children die from gun violence in America. When a gun is present in a domestic violence situation, a woman is five times more likely to be killed.
In addition to the results of the staggering statistics above, it is a sad fact that the Republican party has been in the pocket of the NRA for far too long, and we cannot stand on the sidelines and allow these extremists to make our communities less safe. It is past time that we take serious action to hold gun lobbyists accountable and stop these preventable tragedies.
Sen. Anna Kaplan secured $1 million for gang violence prevention programs on Long Island, wrote landmark legislation to keep ghost guns out of our community, and passed the Red Flag Law that keeps guns out of the hands of those who might be a danger to themselves or others. Everyone deserves to feel safe on their street, in their schools, and at their place of business.
No legislator has a better track record of keeping our community and our families safe than Senator Anna Kaplan. Please join me in voting to re-elect our State Senator Anna Kaplan in our General Election on Nov. 8.
Mary Grace “Gracie” Donaldson
Glen Head
