“This isn’t Normal”: Gun Violence in Brooklyn, Elsewhere, Must Move Leaders to Immediate Action

New York, NY —The subway shooting in Brooklyn today comes as the gun violence epidemic intensifies across the country, including recent shootings in Sacramento, Calif., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and in other incidents that never make national news. Our hearts are broken that guns are once again tearing a community apart. Yet another scene of senseless violence reminds us how regularly gun violence threatens our communities. But we have to remember this is not normal. This is utterly, horrifyingly, not normal.

Just yesterday the President announced a series of long-overdue gun violence prevention measures. Today demonstrates that we have to act faster and with more urgency. We have to do far more to act before tragedy strikes. The simple fact is that even if policing were an effective solution, which the data shows isn’t always the case, we can’t always have a police squad occupying every subway station and every city block. New York City already has the largest police force in the nation. It’s simply impractical and, as we saw today, police can’t prevent violence they can only react to it. What we urgently need are commonsense solutions that stop the chain long before violence occurs, like universal background checks, safe storage laws and curbing unscrupulous and illegal gun sales tactics.

Survivors and activists aren’t comforted by thoughts and prayers. We need action, now.

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