Gun detractors and defenders are up in arms after spates of recent violence. What will new laws mean for our safety?

By Emily Johnson

The first person to be killed with a gun this year in Manhattan was a 16-year-old kid.
Raphael Ward loved baseball and was devoted to his 7-year-old brother. On the night of Jan. 4, he took a bullet to the chest after he refused to hand over his warm winter jacket to a group of thugs.
At the time, state Sen. Dan Squadron said of the crime, “We must continue to work together as a community to fight the scourge of gun violence and make our homes and our streets safer for our families. From stronger gun laws to improved safety at NYCHA developments, we are reminded far too often that the time to act is now.”

Vows of action after tragedy are common and seldom become reality, particularly where guns are concerned. But in this post-Sandy Hook era, suddenly everything that once seemed politically fraught is on the table. And New York is at the forefront of a long-dormant issue that has exploded into the national awareness since 26 people, including 20 young children, were gunned down in the Connecticut elementary school on Dec. 14.

On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that expanded a ban on assault weapons, limited the number of bullets allowed in magazines and bolstered mental health regulations surrounding gun ownership.

The response to the law, predictably, was immediate and furious. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott invited disgruntled New York gun owners to move to the Lone Star State. The National Rifle Association cried foul on the haste with which the bill was pushed through, and together with the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, immediately organized a legal team to review the bill.
The governor defended speed as necessary to prevent a rush to snatch up more guns before the laws went into effect. Considering that in first weeks after the Sandy Hook shooting, the mere suggestion of gun control being reopened for discussion sent people around the country into a gun-buying frenzy, he may have had a point.

Sen. Squadron, a longtime advocate of increased gun control, welcomed the new regulations and called for President Barack Obama to follow suit.

“Our work isn’t done,” he said. “Where Albany has acted, Washington must now act as well.”
Washington didn’t take long to follow suit. Last week, invoking Sandy Hook’s child victims, Obama announced a comprehensive initiative aimed at rolling back gun violence and called on Congress to reinstate the national assault weapons ban and to establish universal background checks for anyone buying a firearm. He also signed 23 executive actions, which did not require congressional approval, that implemented steps like incentives for states to share background check information and hire school resource officers. These were moderate actions, for the most part, aimed at cracking down on school shootings from every angle.

Has there ever been a sleeper issue that, when roused, was more of a lightning rod than gun control? In a polarized country where the Second Amendment is defended with well-funded and fervent zeal, the president himself didn’t go near the issue during his first term, and treated it as taboo in a reelection campaign wary of scaring off swing-state voters.

But now that the NRA has lost its chokehold on the issue, the can of worms it has opened nationwide is astonishing. As liberal activists and politicians leap at this window of opportunity, the panicked gun lobby is doubling down, arguing that more guns make us safer. Conspiracy theories have sprung up claiming that the killings at Sandy Hook were fabricated, or part of an elaborate government plot. The First Amendment was thrown under the bus in favor of the Second when a White House petition to deport CNN’s Piers Morgan for publicly urging stronger gun control received over 100,000 signatures. It has set off heated debates about race in the context of mass shootings, which are predominantly carried out by white men. It has launched a series of provocative, viral articles on mental health by people identifying with shooter Adam Lanza, or with his mother. It has prompted blistering criticism of the media’s role in creating future mass shooters by sensationalizing their actions.

Amid all of this noise, is there no factual common ground? Will this bill actually be effective in curbing gun violence like the incident that claimed Raphael Ward’s life?

New York Assembly members and state senators, a largely blue assortment of people, overwhelmingly hailed the new bill as a positive step.

“While it should not have taken the tragedy of Sandy Hook to begin the long-overdue conversation on guns that we are currently having, I am glad that New York state, which already has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, will act to make them tougher,” Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said, while Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he was “very pleased that the governor said he would join the Assembly in enacting serious and meaningful gun safety legislation.”

Some mental health experts, however, had concerns about one provision of the law: namely, requiring therapists, doctors and social workers to report patients they see as dangerous—which would automatically disqualify them for gun ownership.

Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, told the New York Times that the requirement “represents a major change in the presumption of confidentiality that has been inherent in mental health treatment” and warned that it could discourage people with potentially homicidal tendencies from seeking help in the first place.

Other mental health elements of the plan have been better received, such as an amendment to Kendra’s Law. The 1999 law, which requires people who have been deemed a sufficient risk to society to undergo psychiatric treatment, has been extended through 2017 and outpatient treatment will now be required for a year, up from six months.

Laila Dewan, 37, who has two young sons and lives in the same Lower East Side housing complex where Ward lived with his mother, was cautiously optimistic about the New York law.

“It’s great,” she said. “It’s important to protect kids, you know?”

“It’ll be better for everybody, if it actually does make a difference.”

Renowned Chef Daniel Boulud drops off a gourmet meal and jokes with a resident of Stuyvesant Town. The visit highlighted the Citymeals-on-Wheels program which helps to get food to homebound and elderly.

Downtown Getting Back to Business
The Downtown Alliance has made it their mission to mold and maintain Lower Manhattan as a world-leading central business district of today. The devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy pushed this organization to launch the Back to Business Small Business Grant Program that is now able to provide grant distribution for the first time. “Small businesses have been instrumental in the success of Lower Manhattan as a premier destination to live, work and visit, and so it has been vitally important to come to their aid during this period,” said Liz Berger, the president of Downtown Alliance.

As a result, small businesses located in Flood Zone A below Chambers Street, including a nail salon, dry cleaners and wine shop, have been awarded $266,000 in grants and $120,000 in deferred grants. These businesses were the first to apply on the first-come, first-serve basis, and were certainly not the last. The period for small businesses to submit a grant application ended Dec. 13, but all applications received after will be held and processed if funds are still available.

Contributors to the grant fund include Goldman Sachs, Trinity Church, Citibank, the Durst Organization, Howard Hughes Corp., AT&T New York and Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, CB Richard Ellis, the FiDi Association, Platinum Properties and real estate brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Sen. Squadron Presses for State Gun Control
New York state Sen. Daniel Squadron has strongly advocated for gun restriction legislation throughout his time in Albany. In light of the unimaginable tragedy in Newtown, Conn., other politicians are now joining the fight. Squadron announced last week that the special legislation session he had called in October to pass essential gun control laws may soon be taking place. After thanking Gov. Cuomo and fellow colleagues pushing the cause, Squadron said in a statement, “A package of common-sense measures—including my bill to crack down on assault weapons, as well as critical background checks and limits on guns sales, and the vital crime-solving tool of microstamping—would create the basic protections we need to truly save lives.” He added that the military-style weapon used in the Newtown attack would be banned if his assault weapons bill were passed.

In a statement issued in October, Squadron had called for stronger legislation before another murder could be committed with an assault weapon. “There is simply no reason for a civilian to carry these types of high-powered weapon,” he said. “Before another drop of blood is spilled and another innocent life is lost, New York’s Legislature must do our job and pass these bills.”

An Early Christmas Feast
Last week, New York chef Daniel Boulud and chefs from his finest restaurants teamed up with Citymeals-on-Wheels to make sure the elderly confined to their homes could taste a bit of gourmet comfort this holiday season. On Dec. 20, elderly residents of Stuyvesant Town affected by Hurricane Sandy opened their doors, and mouths, to meals of expertly prepared shepherd’s pie, beef ravioli with carrot confit, coq au vin with pasta, braised lamb with polenta and cassoulet Toulousain.

The meals—300 in total—were prepared by Boulud and his team, who volunteered to help make Christmas extra-special this year. Joining Chef Boulud was William Cox, Bar Boulud; Aaron Chambers, Boulud Sud; Gavin Kaysen, Café Boulud; Eddy Leroux, Daniel; Jean Baptiste Alexandre, DB Bistro; Eli Collins, DBGB; Beth Shapiro, executive director of Citymeals-on-Wheels; and Robert Grimes, Citymeals-on-Wheels board member.

“As a professional chef, I have the privilege of cooking for food-loving guests every night, but Citymeals provides the opportunity to share my passion with those who are less fortunate,” Boulud said.

Citymeals-on-Wheels will continue to provide nourishment and companionship through the weekend and on Christmas Day, supplying over 7,455 meals and 14,694 “Season’s Greetings” boxes to elderly residents throughout the city when many senior centers are closed.

Compiled by Jessica Mastronardi

The congressman, whose district encompasses the Upper West Side, said in a statement that too many unstable people have accessed firearms in the country to commit terrible acts.
“If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don’t know when is,” he continued. “How many more Columbines and Newtowns must we live through? I am challenging President Obama, the Congress, and the American public to act on our outrage and, finally, do something about this.”

26 people were killed in the elementary school, including 20 children. The shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also shot his mother in his nearby home before the mass murder, and took his own life in the school.

BROADWAY MALL ASSOCIATION SEEKS DONATIONS
The Broadway Mall Association (BMA), the organization that oversees landscape design and maintenance for the malls along Broadway from West 70th to 168th streets, is seeking private funding for capital improvements.

BMA has secured over $10 million in state and city funds in the past three decades, but now wants to expand its preservation efforts to maintain newly renovated malls at an annual cost of $10,000 per mall.

According to BMA, “If the new malls are to grow in successfully and thrive over time, the BMA will need to advocate as successfully with the private sector as it has with the public.” For more information and to donate, visit BMA’s website at www.broadwaymall.org.

CITY’S CREATIVE ECONOMY GROWING, BUT MINORITIES BEING LEFT BEHIND
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office released a report last week on the city’s entrepreneurial economy. Titled “Start-Up City: Growing New York’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for All,” the report summarized recent growths in “entrepreneurial” industries like finance, fashion, marketing and technology, but also addressed these fields’ limited accessibility, citing census data that showed only 29 percent of employed Blacks and 20 percent of employed Latinos work in these “creative economies.”

“Too many working-class New Yorkers lack the resources and skills to share in this growth,” Stringer said in a statement, noting that annual salaries for jobs in this new tech economy often start at $65,000, well above the city’s median family income. “We need to turn this engine into a pipeline to the middle class for thousands of New Yorkers.”

To achieve this end, the report recommends increasing office and housing affordability, expanding computer science training in public schools and improving transportation to growing business districts, among other initiatives.

CONGRESS MEMBERS REQUEST POST-SANDY FOOD STAMP RELIEF
Members of Congress including Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler demanded easier access to federal food stamps for New Yorkers still suffering from Hurricane Sandy last week. The members wrote a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg requesting looser eligibility requirements and expanded eligibility zones for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-administered Disaster Supplemental Food Stamp (D-SNAP) program, which provides relief funding to help feed those who were hit hard by the October storm.

“Making it as easy as possible for those affected by Hurricane Sandy to have access to the resources they need to recover will also help our city rebuild,” the congress members wrote. “Allowing survivors better access to relief programs like D-SNAP will mean more people will be able to sign up, which will also translate into more profits for local small businesses such as grocery stores.”
The members noted that many New Yorkers whose homes were damaged by the storm’s extensive flooding were elderly or handicapped, so they would particularly benefit from easier access to the federal benefits.

Via Flickr / kcdsTM

Americans looking at the tragic events of the Newtown school shooting need to stop talking about mental healthcare entirely — for now. Yes, we have a woefully inadequate support system for the mentally ill and it should be fixed. But it is our rampant supply of firearms that enables the homicidally insane to take innocent lives down with them. Without this access, Friday’s killer would have just been a damaged mind in need of help. Without this access, twenty first-graders and six educators from Sandy Hook elementary would still be breathing. To focus on the “why” and ignore the “how” at this historical juncture is an act of deadly negligence.

Our country’s proliferation of guns is a scourge to our safety, our children’s safety, and to our freedom.

On average, 30,000 people are killed by gun violence in the United States each year. If you discount suicide, that number is closer to 12,000. An American dies every 20 minutes from a firearm.

In America you are 20 times more likely to be murdered by a firearm than in any other industrialized country — discounting Mexico, whose drug war boosted their homicide rate even beyond our own.

Anyone who thinks that our gun-related death toll is twenty times higher than other developed countries’ because we have so many more crazy people is practicing self-deceit. American children from the ages of 5 to 14 are 13 times more likely to be murdered by guns than are children in the rest of the developed world. That’s not our only unique statistic.

We also win first place for the number of guns in our homes. America has an estimated 270 million privately owned firearms. At nine guns for every ten Americans, we also have the most guns per capita. The runner-up is war-ridden Yemen, with roughly half as many.

The numbers are jarringly clear, and easy to interpret.

We are not the only wealthy country to ever harbor homicidal maniacs who commit mass shootings; we’re just the only one that consistently chooses not to do something about it.

On April 28, 1996, an Australian man murdered 35 people using a semi-automatic rifle. Less than two weeks later, The Australasian Police Ministers Council convened a special meeting and agreed to a national plan for the regulation of firearms. This agreement outlawed self-loading rifles and self-loading and pump-action shotguns, placed limitations on firearm ownership, and led to the buyback of over 500,000 guns.

The bill didn’t deprive everyone of their guns; it just cut the number of privately owned guns by twenty percent, which were also the types most commonly used in mass killings. In the two decades prior to the national firearms agreement, Australia witnessed 13 mass murders; since the law passed, they haven’t seen a single other case. Their overall firearm homicide rate has dropped by 40 percent.

Scotland has a similar story. In Dunblane, 1995, a 43-year-old entered a school with four handguns and murdered sixteen children. Two years later, the United Kingdom had banned the private possession of all handguns. Since then, the UK’s murder rate is 50 times lower than our own.

These countries acted immediately and saved countless lives.

Friday’s shooter fired up to eleven bullets into each of the six and seven-year-old bodies he targeted; he used one of the several semiautomatic guns his mother kept legally in their home. Needless to say, not a single shot child survived. Some point to Connecticut having relatively “strict” gun laws as evidence that gun control is not the solution.  But Connecticut having some of the “strictest” gun laws is a sign of national failure, not of “gun control” not working. Why did this person’s mother need semi-automatic weapons? Why does anybody who’s not at war need those? Having four such guns in your house, with a mentally ill son, is not “gun control.”

We do not have gun control.

But despite America’s overflowing history of shootings, what happened in Newtown was the first of its kind on our soil—a man massacring children still in primary school.

I’m in my early twenties. I grew up in the Columbine-era, when the image of the bullied teen in a trench coat and leather boots opening fire on his peers became a stereotype almost as quickly as it became fact. Columbine happened, and gun policy remained the same. Will the next generation grow up knowing the “elementary school shooter “ as a facet of their culture?

If we don’t demand that twenty children slaughtered in broad daylight on an otherwise typical school day be the bottom line, then there will never be a bottom line.

On Sunday, addressing the broken parents of Newtown, President Obama alluded to taking a stand against the gun epidemic: “I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this,” he said.

“Let us carry on and make our country worthy of their memory,” he continued, referring to the twenty small bodies waiting to be buried over the following days.

Will we hold him to it?

“We are here today with a very clear message. There’s too much gun violence in New York, there’s too much gun violence in this country, and we have to go back to Albany to do something about it,” state Sen. Daniel Squadron told a cluster of people in Alphabet City on Friday, Oct. 5.

Squadron gathered with community leaders and elected officials to call for an urgent legislative meeting to address gun control statewide. General statewide legislation is held in Albany from January through June, so Squadron’s call for a special meeting would mean the bills be looked at before January. Although the session itself would take place in Albany, Squadron made his announcement at Campos Plaza, a public housing project on East 13th Street and Avenue C, and the site of a shooting earlier this month.

According to New York City Police Department reports, there have already been 1,329 shootings in the city this year, and this summer shootings reportedly increased by 5.2 percent compared to 2011.

“Before one more innocent life is lost, it’s time for the legislature to pass these critical bills,” Squadron said.

The gun control bills that Squadron is proposing include a limit on how many guns one can buy per month, more thorough background checks, and a broadening of the definition of assault weapons to encompass various military-style guns.

“I can think of no legitimate reason that an individual would need a military-style assault weapon with the capacity to fire hundreds of rounds in seconds,” Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said at the conference.

The package of laws would also require the microstamping of shell casings. Microstamping is a new technology, in which a laser stamps a specific number onto the shell casing, so that when a bullet is fired it can—theoretically—be traced back to the person who purchased the weapon. Gun rights activists have come out strongly against microstamping, saying it is ineffective, costly to gun companies, and affects legal gun owners more than criminals, since most shootings involve illegal guns.

“It will make firearms much more expensive to purchase,” said Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle Association, in a telephone interview. He cited California, where a microstamping law has already been upheld but is not yet enacted, saying a few gun companies had stopped shipping to the state in reaction to the bill.

But, he added, the real problem with microstamping is “it just doesn’t work.” He pointed to a study conducted at UC Davis, a branch of the University of California, to defend the technology’s ineffectuality. King added that anyone could dismantle the stamping mechanism in a matter of minutes.

King maintains that there are better ways to stop violent crimes than gun control. Asked what he would propose, he replied, “putting people who commit the crimes in jail, and keeping them there for a while.”

Dereese Huff, the Campos Plaza Tenant Association President who also spoke at Squadron’s conference, is of a different mind.

“We are a community that has been fired upon,” she told the crowd, as neighbors nodded emphatically. “I support efforts to control the rampant spread of guns in our neighborhoods. We all deserve the right to live a long and secure life, and not to be killed by a stray bullet.”

Next to Huff stood Aida Salgado, 42, a mother whose 17-year-old son was fatally shot in October 2011, just three blocks from Campos Plaza. Donovan Salgado was a senior at Washington Irving High School when another youth fired at him while attempting to rob him. Donovan was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was declared dead.

After her loss, Aida founded “Mothers in Arms”, a parental organization dedicated to protecting children’s safety. Salgado believes the New York Police Department does not have gun violence under control, and is either in denial or simply does not care. She says she does her best to keep her other teenage son close nowadays, and inside her apartment as much as possible, for fear he will get hurt in the street.

“I hope that lawmakers hear our voices, our chorus of pain, and act quickly,” Huff urged, as councilmen and fellow tenants murmured in agreement.

Whether or not the governor will agree to review these bills before January remains to be seen.

City Approves East Village Landmark District
Neighborhood preservation groups secured a victory on Tuesday, Oct. 9, when the New York City Landmarks Preservation Society voted to approve the Lower East Side/East Village Historic District. The district includes 330 buildings and covers parts of the 15 blocks between Avenue A and the Bowery, and between St. Mark’s Place and Second Street in the southwest corner of the East Village. Local groups have been clamoring for such protections for years now, under mounting pressure from developers. The president of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman, lauded the approval, saying, “This neighborhood has been a mecca for artists, immigrants and innovators for the past two centuries. That proud and dynamic history not only shaped New York, but our nation and the world. Too much has been lost of late in the East Village to new high-rise dorms, hotels and luxury condos.”

Wall Street Collectors Bourse
The Wall Street Collectors Bourse returns for its second year at the Museum of American Finance from Thursday, Oct. 18, through Saturday, Oct. 20. The show, this year titled “Memorabilia of Finance,” includes items such as stock and bond certificates, autographs, medals, bank notes and coins, connecting them to historic events. In addition, there will be the “Inaugural Anniversary Celebration of Important Global Companies.” Some leading companies celebrating their anniversaries this year will offer objects or services connecting themselves with the news of the day—reminding the audience that their anniversaries are important on a larger historical scale.

Stuyvesant High School is scheduled to open the show with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday morning, and on Friday two important numismatic organizations will hold special events for their members at the Bourse. The featured speaker for Friday’s dinner at historic India House will be the prominent Belgian auctioneer and dealer Mario Boone. The auction, by Archives International Auctions, will be on Saturday, Oct. 20, in the gallery of the Museum of American Finance.
The Museum is free during the Bourse events. For more information, visit www.wallstreetbourse.com.

Léman Prep School Hosts Compost Sale to Benefit Feeding Children Everywhere
On Oct. 3, Léman Prep hosted a fundraiser for “Feeding Children Everywhere,” a charity devoted to getting healthy meals to hungry children across the world. The school raised money through selling handmade compost, comprised of food scraps and other cafeteria leftovers, which the students have been storing in containers on Léman’s roof since September. The bundles of nutrient-rich compost cost from $5 to $15. Each parcel came with a packet of seeds, promoting sustainability and giving the compost a purpose even for those not used to gardening. Léman Prep is part of the Meritas family of institutions, which has sister schools throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe. Accordingly, Léman strives to make its students “see beyond the Manhattan harbor and engage in a conversation with others around the world.”

Mayor Announces Huge Gun Bust in Manhattan
One hundred firearms were seized and 16 gun traffickers indicted in what amounted to one of Manhattan’s biggest gun busts in the last five years, Mayor Bloomberg, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced last Friday.

The confiscations came after two ongoing undercover police investigations in East Harlem. In both cases, undercover detectives purchased dozens of weapons from illegal sources. At least 10 of the sold guns were reportedly bought in South Carolina and smuggled up to New York.

“This investigation illustrates both the problem of illegal guns being purchased in other states and brought here illegally, and the skill and dedication of the NYPD officers who take the guns off the street, often at great risk to themselves,” Bloomberg said at a press conference.

“There have been 127 shooting incidents this year in Manhattan, with 152 victims,” District Attorney Vance added in a statement. “Gun traffickers are bringing violence to our neighborhoods by selling illegal firearms—they are at the root of the problem of gun violence in this city.”

City Council Approves Seward Park Project
The Seward Park Redevelopment Project (SPURA) was approved last Thursday in a unanimous decision, to the delight of Community Board members, council members and many residents of the Lower East Side. The project will convert 1.65 million square feet of vacant city land into a space with commercial and community facilities, and 1,000 housing units, many of which will be permanent, affordable housing.

Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who spearheaded the modification of the City Planning Commission’s original proposal, said, “Today’s vote to approve development of the SPURA site is truly history in the making.”

The project has many provisions that would benefit local and low-income families.

Demonstrators gathered in Union Square on March 21 to protest Trayvon Martin’s shooting death in Sanford, Fla. creative commons photo

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, back from a tour of Asia, was asked at a recent press conference for his thoughts on the killing of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, a story that enveloped the national news over the past week.

The killing of the unarmed teen has become a flashpoint for gun control advocates and critics of racial profiling across the country, following the Justice Department’s decision to investigate the teen’s death, which some observers said may have been legal under a Florida law that allows a bystander in threat of imminent danger to use deadly force. The man who shot Martin, George Zimmerman, has not been arrested.

“Your heart just has to go out to the parents,” Bloomberg said at the press conference in Brooklyn. “I guess you pray for the deceased, but this really struck a nerve with a lot of people across the country. I think what you see here and we should be perfectly clear about this: The gun lobby is writing our nation’s gun laws.”

“It’s a disgrace,” Bloomberg added. “They write them in Washington, they write them in state capitals. And the result is that our children are being killed, our police officers are being killed, you and I and our families are in danger, in greater danger than we should be.”

On Wednesday, Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams, an outspoken critic of the city’s stop-and-frisk policy, joined demonstrators in Union Square wearing hoodies like the one Martin was wearing when he died. Williams said racial stereotyping is to blame for Martin’s killing.

“It’s Trayvon Martin in Florida. It’s Ramarley Graham in the Bronx. The darker your skin, the more you look like a criminal,” he said at the rally, Gothamist reported.

But Bloomberg stuck to the topic of gun control and did not bring up New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s stop-and-frisk policy, which Williams and other detractors argue disproportionately targets young men of color.

“I mean this is just the craziest thing, only in America,” Bloomberg said. “We have more guns than people, and the rest of the world is looking at us incredulously, that we’re letting people kill our citizens.”

This article originally appeared in City & State. To read more, visit cityandstate.com.

Legislation to force gun manufacturers to “code” bullets fired from semi-automatic pistols was tabled after State Senate Democrats failed to muster the 32 votes necessary to pass.

Stamping would help law enforcement officials identify the make, model and serial number of the gun that fired the bullet.

Most of the State Senate Republicans were either against the legislation or uncommitted. One Republican, Frank Padavan of Queens, supported the bill while three upstate Democrats vowed to be “no” votes.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a gun-control advocate who has donated to State Senate Republicans in the past, was a major supporter of the legislation.

After the measure was set aside, Bloomberg released a statement scolding the bill’s opponents, who felt that gun manufacturers would carry the financial burden of implementing the technology.

“This was a defeat for our police officers, district attorneys and the public – and a victory for criminals who use illegal guns to shoot and kill innocent people,” Bloomberg said in a statement.

State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, the bill’s author and an attorney general candidate, felt that the failure to pass the legislation was a setback for public safety.

“Opposing microstamping is like opposing DNA evidence or fingerprinting to solve crimes,” Schneiderman said in a statement.

The combination of falling crime and budget deficits has resulted in a record low number of police on staff, leaving many precincts with limited resources. Salaries for NYPD officers are lower than in other major U.S. cities, and high retirement rates coupled with few new recruits could make it difficult, if not impossible, for the city to maintain a top-notch force in the years ahead. Allocating more money to police in tough economic times might seem excessive with crime so low, but the high-crime 1970s are still top of mind for many residents and elected officials.

Another frequent topic of controversy during the past several years has been the trampling civil liberties in the name of public safety. For example, police have stopped, questioned and frisked a record number of New Yorkers since 2001, when the New York City Police Department (NYPD) was required to release data on the so-called stop and frisk program. In the three-month period from January to March 2009, officers stopped 171,094 New Yorkers; nine out of 10 times, no charges were brought. That number represents a 22 percent increase from the last three months of 2008. Perhaps more troubling is the fact that a disproportionately high number of those detained were people of color. According to the data, only 16,000 of those stopped were white, while 89,000 were black and 56,000 were Latino.

Finally, with the anniversaries of the September 11th terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina almost upon us, many New Yorkers also wonder if the city is prepared to handle a major natural or man-made disaster.

We asked the candidates to tell us how they would continue to fight crime, terrorism and prepare for emergencies, while maintaining New Yorkers’ civil liberties and balancing the budget.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

running as a Republican and Independent

Police Staffing
Under Bloomberg, the NYPD will have dwindled from 41,000 officers a decade ago to just over 34,300 by the end of this year. Yet crime has dropped another 30 percent since Bloomberg took office, with a 12 percent decrease since the beginning of this year alone. Despite those numbers, fears remain that a small police force will find it increasingly difficult to do its job. The mayor has countered those charges by saying that he is focusing on increasing the ability of police officers to catch criminals with new technology, like the “Real Time Crime Center,” which conducts rapid analysis of homicides, shootings and other serious incidents citywide in order to provide a real-time assessment of emerging crime, crime patterns and potential suspects. This year, the mayor also worked to give 911 and 311 the ability to receive digital videos photographs from the public.

Police Pay
In 2006, the starting salaries for police officers went down to a shocking $25,000. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that low starting salaries harmed the NYPD’s ability to attract and retain top candidates. Last year, Bloomberg signed a deal with the police union to raise salaries by 20 percent, and gave rookie cops an increase from $36,000 to $40,000 a year.

Stop and Frisk
Bloomberg has largely avoided addressing critics’ complaints of racial profiling. A spokesperson for the campaign said in an email that, “the department has focused on making sure that all police officers have the training they need to recognize suspicious activity. Police officers are called on to make difficult decisions and, the vast majority of the time, they make the right one.”

Rather than address this issue head-on, the Bloomberg campaign highlighted its efforts to build relationships between police and the communities they patrol, as well the administration’s push to make the NYPD as ethnically diverse as the city it protects.

Gun Control
Bloomberg led an unprecedented effort against illegal guns in New York City, going after not only local criminals, but taking his cause to the state and federal levels as well. His “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” coalition has gained support from more than 450 mayors in 40-plus states. While critics have said the mayor is too focused on federal legislation, Bloomberg argues that New York City’s streets are being flooded with illegal guns from out-of-state dealers, and the way to stop that is to push the federal government to be tougher on criminals. He wants state legislation to triple the mandatory minimum sentence for possession of illegal guns, and he is leading the charge to get states to eliminate the loophole that allows those convicted of gun crimes to avoid jail time.

Counterterrorism
Bloomberg increased the number of NYPD detectives assigned to the national Joint Terrorism Task Force—a collaboration between the FBI and state and local law enforcement agencies—from 17 to 125. To protect the city from other threats, the administration began underwater monitoring of tunnels and air screening for anthrax and other dangerous pathogens. On subways and buses, police have upped patrols and instituted random bag checks. According to a spokesperson, the city, working with the FBI, has successfully uncovered and prevented seven terrorist plots.

The administration is also trying to prepare for responding to another 9/11-type attack. The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) released the “Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness Strategy,” a roadmap of the department’s current and future efforts. This past May, the Office of Emergency Management and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hosted “Operation Safe PATH 2009,” a multi-agency exercise to test the city’s and the Port Authority’s ability to respond to an improvised explosive device on a New Jersey-bound PATH train.

Emergency Preparedness
Under Bloomberg, the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) launched “Ready New York,” an educational campaign that encourages New Yorkers to prepare for emergencies. It is based on three guiding principles: knowing the hazards in New York City, making a household disaster plan and stocking emergency supplies. Ready New York has nine multilingual publications, numerous public service announcements, multimedia advertising campaigns, web content, a speakers’ bureau, a reprinting program, corporate partnerships and community outreach. Bloomberg also instituted a citywide expansion of Notify NYC, the city’s emergency communication system. Participants in Notify NYC receive emergency alerts, like AMBER Alerts and natural disasters. Subscribers also have the option of registering for Significant Event Notifications, which provide informational advisories about less-severe emergency events that may still cause local disruptions, like extended mass transit disruptions and major utility outages. Public health notifications and non-emergency advisories about unscheduled suspensions of alternate side parking rules and public school closures and delays are also available. During National Preparedness Month, OEM distributed 1,000 free “Go Bags”—on-the-go kits with various emergency resources—to New Yorkers who signed up for emergency tips and information.

Natural Disaster Preparedness
The Department of Environmental Protection is preparing the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is located close to sea level, for the effects of climate change. There are plans to raise electrical equipment, including pump motors, circuit breakers and controls, to higher elevations. There is also a neighborhood-based education effort underway in low-lying communities that are most vulnerable to climate change and hurricane impacts. The Office of Emergency Management redesigned the “Coastal Storm Plan” for a Category 4 hurricane that makes landfall in Atlantic City, N.J., and hits New York City head-on. The plan focuses on seven components: storm tracking and notification, decision making, evacuation procedures, shelter planning, security and stockpiling logistics, public information dissemination, and recovery and restoration operations. In November 2006, New York City became the country’s first major city to be certified as StormReady, a designation given by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., Democrat

Police Staffing
Thompson said he would not cut police staff levels, despite a major city budget deficit that amounts to more than $5 billion. “We must never again make the mistake we made in the 1970s, when difficult financial times caused government officials to slash essential city services like police and sanitation,” Thompson said in an email. “Doing so led to more crime, a diminished quality of life and an exodus from our city—effectively creating a vicious cycle of negative growth and declining city revenues.” Thompson did not say if he would hire more police officers.

Police Pay
Thompson said he was a strong supporter of the Bloomberg administration’s negotiation for increased police salaries, particularly starting salaries, earlier this year. But Thompson wants to go farther and raise police salaries so that they are on par with other major cities. “We must continue to push for higher police salaries in order to ensure that we are able to attract the best and brightest to police our city,” he said in an email. “The hardest working police force in the world—in perhaps the most target-rich environment in the world—must be paid accordingly.”

Stop and Frisk
Like Bloomberg, Thompson mostly evaded tough questions about the use of racial profiling in stop and frisk situations. Thompson has said that he is “concerned” about the reports released earlier this year that showed a record numbers of New Yorkers being stopped and frisked by police officers, with a majority being black and Latino. “We need to balance using all available police procedures to protect the public while also protecting individuals’ civil rights,” Thompson said in an email. He did not say whether he would continue the program or not.

Gun Control
Thompson believes that tough gun control laws are important. He said that if elected, he would create a multi-faceted crime agenda with the focus on putting more police officers on the streets. “It does us no good, for example, to promote strict gun control laws if we don’t have enough police on our streets enforcing those laws,” he said in an email.

Counterterrorism
Thompson praised Police Commissioner Ray Kelly for creating the Counterterrorism Bureau and pledged to continue similar efforts in preventing another 9/11-type terrorist attack against New York City. He also said the city needs to focus its efforts on coordinating information and efforts between local, state and federal authorities. “We learned two incredibly valuable lessons in the aftermath of 9/11,” he said in an email. “First, our city’s inter-agency communication mechanisms and protocols must be improved—an area in which we have made progress. Second, we must do everything we can to protect and equip our first-responders.”

Emergency Preparedness
While praising the efforts of the Office of Emergency Management, Thompson has also suggested that the city explore the use of new media technology to improve emergency preparedness. Perhaps social networking sites could be used in the event of an emergency.

Natural Disaster Preparedness
Thompson said that New York City should be collaborating with other coastal cities nationwide to learn how to prepare for a natural disaster, like Hurricane Katrina.

Council Member Tony Avella, Democrat

Police Staffing
Avella wants to return police staff levels to the previous record highs. Continuing a policy of staff cuts or allowing low levels of staff to remain stagnant will only risk an increase crime, he said.

Police Pay
Avella said one of the major challenges facing the NYPD is low morale. Noting that police are often the target of frustration by many city residents, rightly or wrongly, Avella said he would work on increasing respect and appreciation for New York City’s police force. To that end, Avella said salaries should be similar to those of police officers in Long Island and Westchester. Otherwise, New York City runs the risk of losing its best officers. “You can’t ask people to put their life on the line for a salary that doesn’t support their family, given the high cost of living in New York City,” Avella said. “Who is going to apply for that job?”

Where would the funding come from? Avella said he would look for areas of waste in the budget and trim the fat. He also said NYPD salaries should be a top priority when it comes to city spending.

Stop and Frisk
Avella believes that the next mayor must seriously investigate the stop and frisk program to see if it is truly targeting blacks and Latinos. If elected, he has pledged to appoint a deputy mayor for human rights, and said that looking into the NYPD’s stop and frisk program would be the job of such an appointee. Avella added that if racial profiling is occurring, he believes it likely stems from the upper echelons of the police department, rather than police officers on the street.

Gun Control
Avella said that New York City has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation, so unlike Bloomberg, he would not focus his efforts on federal legislation. “As mayor, I would be more concentrated on the city and the state than on the country,” he said.

Beat Officers
Avella’s anti-crime platform revolves around restoring community-based policing. He wants to assign more officers to walk a beat, so that the officer can develop a relationship with the community. When officers walked a beat, Avella explained, they became intimately familiar with the ethnic and cultural makeup of a neighborhood, developed ties with residents and community leaders and were able to foster a better channel of communication between neighborhoods and the police department. Patrolling city streets in cars does not work the same way as a walking beat, the Council member argues.

Counterterrorism
Avella said it is hard to comment on the city’s level of preparedness for another terrorist attack because most of that knowledge is in the hands of the mayor and police commissioner. Overall, however, he doesn’t think residents are prepared. The federal government, he added, has not done enough to help New York City.

Emergency Preparedness
Avella has criticized the mayor’s efforts to get residents to volunteer for emergency response teams without giving them the proper funds or training to make such efforts effective. He also said the volunteer response teams are not allowed to move out until they have word from the city. “Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose?” Avella asked. “If there’s a blackout, they can’t go out and start directing traffic until they get a phone call.”

He also said the mayor has not done enough in terms of educating the public on emergency preparedness. Avella’s campaign has been pushing to change the structure of community planning, by giving more power to local community boards and groups. While these groups have primarily focused on issues like zoning and education, local boards could also be responsible for instituting their own local emergency preparedness plans. If elected, Avella pledged to have communities map out their own strategies in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other emergency.