Letter To The Editor: Murphy A Hypocrite On School Gun Violence

To the Editor,

The hypocrisy of State Senator Terrence Murphy knows no bounds. He has the audacity to admonish the Assembly to pass what he calls school safety measures when he, himself, sponsored a bill to repeal the NY SAFE Act, a common sense gun safety measure which has done far more to prevent school shootings in NY than anything he and his Republican colleagues in the Senate have ever considered. He will not even look at the additional gun safety legislation already passed by the Assembly that has gone to die in Senate committees.

Mr. Murphy proposes adding school resource officers, a fine idea. But at the same time, he would repeal the prohibition on assault rifles in NY to ensure that those SROs would be outgunned and unable to adequately protect the students for whom they are responsible.

Mr. Murphy proposes to add mental health professionals to the schools, again a useful measure. But he will not support a red flag law that will allow judges to order guns to be removed from people determined to be a threat to themselves or others. So if that school psychologist has concerns regarding a particular student, there is nothing she can legally do to prevent that student from bringing a weapon to school the very next day. In fact, Governor Cuomo has proposed a law that would permit the psychologist to go to court to attempt to restrict that student’s access to guns. But does Mr. Murphy support that initiative? Of course not.

Because Mr. Murphy wants to have it both ways. He wants you to think he is all for protecting students while he twists and turns every which way to avoid confronting the NRA, which has given him a 93% rating and pours funds into each of his campaigns.

Without addressing the real school safety problem—keeping guns away from those who should not have them—all the additional school personnel Mr. Murphy want to add will do little to ensure the safety of our students. It’s clear to me that Mr. Murphy ranks his support from the NRA far above the lives of our children.

So stop lecturing the Assembly, Mr. Murphy. They have already done far more than you to ensure safety in our schools. If you really care about student safety, withdraw your bill to repeal the SAFE Act and get behind the common sense gun safety legislation already pending in the Senate.

But we all know that’s never going to happen, because it would anger Mr. Murphy’s buddies in the NRA, and their support is obviously the most important thing to him.

We can change all of this by removing Terrence “Hypocrite” Murphy from the Senate in November. Support Democrat Robert Kesten who will vote for the common sense measures that will actually allow you to send your children to school without fear. And no, Mr. Murphy, he does not want to take guns away from responsible owners nor repeal the Second Amendment. He only wants to ensure that your children, and ours, will be safe in their classrooms.

Sincerely,

Joel E. Gingold

Croton-on-Hudson