Today, New York Moms Demand Action heads to Albany for Legislative Advocacy Day, a battle of necessity to make Glock answer for enabling home-assembled machine guns, to strengthen safe storage laws, and to educate and pressure our Office of Gun Violence Prevention. As much as I’d love to be there myself, I want to take a stand and remind us why this movement this cause is essential.
On March 26, 2025, the Supreme Court delivered a resounding triumph for gun safety. In a stern admonishment of gun extremism, the Court upheld the ATF’s life-saving rule regulating ghost guns, guns that are untraceable because they can be bought and built with no background check. This victory is a triumph for our communities and for all activists who are unwilling to normalize senseless violence.
I joined Moms Demand Action in 2012, devastated by the tragedy of Sandy Hook. As a mother, as a wife, as a teacher, the massacre broke something within me, but it also set me ablaze. I signed up via email, unaware of my beginning.
Since then, I’ve traversed the Brooklyn Bridge on Wear Orange Day, stood on train platforms all over Westchester County, handed out flyers and information, and hosted events in my hometown of Mount Vernon. I even brought Moms Demand Action to my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, as a social action project many members of our organization are now happy to be part of this cause as well.
Moms Demand Action is not a group; it’s a building coalition, a civic movement, a movement, not a moment. Albany and Washington, D.C. legislative days are part of the lifeblood of our advocacy not because it’s easy, but because it’s necessary.
Gun violence affects us in so many ways homicide, domestic violence, mass shootings, and suicide. Perhaps the most underreported truth is that unsecured guns cause a lot of these deaths. And my story, like so many others, starts with loss.
Take a walk back with me.
My godson, Ka’Saun O’Shane Cain, was killed on the streets of Mount Vernon, New York, in 2009. It was a senseless loss. Then, on February 2, 2012, my student Ramarley Graham was shot by the NYPD inside his apartment in front of his grandmother and six-year-old brother. He was unarmed. The officer stated he had seen the “butt of a gun,” but no weapon was ever found.
Ramarley was a quiet, gentle soul. I knew his mother, Constance “Lilmiss” Malcolm, from my time working at Young Scholars Academy. All of that was erased in that one instant. It reminded me that violence was all around on the streets, in our homes, and even in the hands of those who are meant to protect us.
I began attending meetings after Sandy Hook and Ramarley’s murder. I sat along with Mayor Ernie Davis and other mothers like me who had lost children to violence. What I heard was stories of cold cases, silence, and pain pushed me to do even more. The only thing that connected each tragedy? Guns.
Moms Demand Action is pushing for common-sense gun safety laws. Here are some demands:
(1) Hold Glock Responsible for enabling illegal machine gun distribution through their conversion device, the “Glock switch.”
(2) Implement Merchant Category Codes for gun stores to detect suspicious gun and ammunition sales.
(3) Educate the Public about New York’s safe storage of firearms law through NYSED materials.
(4) Implement the SAVE Act to fund anti-violence education in schools.
(5) Expand Ghost Gun Regulation and eliminate loopholes that exempt 3D-printed and homemade weapons from regulation.
(6) Reform Lockdown Drills in schools by reducing frequency and mandating trauma-informed training for teachers.
Moms Demand Action purpose is misinterpreted by many. Like the Second Amendment. Yes, we are Second Amendment advocates. What we aren’t advocating for is senseless killing. We believe in common-sense approaches that can help put an end to the gun violence epidemic, taking too many children and loved ones away from us.
So today, even though I may not walk the Albany halls with my fellow advocates, I raise my voice here, on this page, at this moment to remind you that change doesn’t start with silence.
It starts with being present, speaking up, and staying in the struggle.
Join us. This is how we set the tone in democracy. Here is the LINK: https://momsdemandaction.org/start-here/
Savor a few shots captured by my camera images of a movement fueled by love, propelled by justice, and rooted in hope.
With Love,
Cynthia
#thabump #thabrownurbanmotherparthers #momsdemandaction #endgunviolence #gunlaws #bettergunlawsinamerica #bettergunlaws
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