Steven A. Levine
Coordinator for Educational Programs
I have
watched with great sadness and anger the recent epidemic of gun violence in the
United States, most notably in Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, and today at the
Empire State Building. While the motives
for these despicable acts of violence have varied, one common denominator has
been the prevalence of semi-automatic weapons.
Sadly, this
is not a new issue. Twenty-three years
ago, Mayor Ed Koch gave a speech calling for federal and city semi-automatic
assault weapons bans after five children were murdered in a California
schoolyard by a killer with an AK-47. He
told his audience that “It’s true that ‘Guns don’t kill people, people do.’ But it’s also true that killers and armed
criminals can create large numbers of victims by using a semi-automatic assault
rifle.” (Click here to
read the speech.) The Archives’ City
Council Collection also has a resolution in 1991 calling on the State
Legislature “to prohibit the unlicensed possession of semiautomatic assault
weapons,” showing that this remained an important issue. (Click here)
The Archives
has a wealth of material about issues of gun control and gun violence, including
the Bernhard Goetz shootings of 1984. If
you would like to learn more about these issues or use documents in your
classroom, please feel free to contact me.
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