16 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 17, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Maloney promotes legislation to tackle gun violence in Queensbridge Houses
BY JULIA MORO
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Queens leaders and activists joined
together at the Queensbridge Houses in
Long Island City on Th ursday, Feb. 10,
to discuss the dire need to get guns out
of the neighborhood, just one week aft er
President Joe Biden visited the district to
hear from residents and local leaders on
how they are combating gun violence.
During the press conference,
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney spoke
about a package of bills she introduced
last year focused on gun safety. On Jan. 28,
Maloney and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
re-introduced bills geared towards gun
traffi cking and purchasing illegal fi rearms.
Maloney stressed that the time to act
on this issue is now, with a president who
is willing to sign off on drastic gun control
Williams, Lee elected co-chairs of Queens delegation to City Council
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Council members Nantasha Williams
and Linda Lee were elected to serve as
co-chairs of the Queens delegation to the
City Council by their colleagues. Th e duo
will replace former Councilwoman Karen
Koslowitz, who chaired the delegation
from 2015 to 2021, when she was termlimited
out of offi ce.
Th e new leadership team will lead the
delegation’s budget negotiations during
the city’s discretionary budget process for
Fiscal Year 2023. Under Koslowitz last
year, the Queens delegation helped secure
more than $20 million in funding for capital
projects across the borough.
Th e Queens delegation secured and distributed
$540,000 last year in discretionary
funding to various nonprofi t, community
based organizations as part of
the city’s Boroughwide Needs Initiative,
which provided funds for neighborhood
beautifi cation and sanitation projects,
entrepreneurial and technological training
programs and educational programs
for Queens schools. Th e delegation also
allocated $1.1 million to more than 50
organizations to support individual food
pantry programs.
Williams and Lee were elected in
November and said they were proud to
serve as co-chairs of the delegation.Lee
represents the 23rd District in Eastern
Queens and she was recently appointed
as chair of the Council’s Committee
on Mental Health, Addictions and
Disabilities. Prior to becoming the fi rst
Korean-American ever elected to the City
Council, Lee served as the president and
CEO of Korean Community Services.
“In Queens, we fi nd strength in our unity
and our diversity,” Lee said. “Th roughout
the borough, we have so many diff erent
communities, priorities and needs, yet we
recognize that we can only achieve these
things by working together. As co-chair
of this delegation, I promise to lead with
fairness, open-mindedness and equity for
all, and will cherish the trust placed in me
by my colleagues.”
Williams represents District 27 in southeast
Queens and was appointed chair
of the Committee on Civil and Human
Rights. She also served as a leader for
the SEQ Wellness Ambassador Initiative,
leading her team during the fi rst wave of
COVID-19 to provide wellness checks in
lieu of senior center closures. Williams
also served as the project manager for
M/WBE Compliance and helped initiate
community outreach eff orts for the JFK
Redevelopment Program.
“Working together will strengthen our
distinct bonds and showcase the importance
of partnership and diversity presented
in our districts,” Williams said.
“I believe in an equitable distribution of
funds for all districts and fi nding common
ground within the delegation while
respecting our diff erences and respective
decisions. I am committed to collaboration
to help bring change to our communities
and eager to foster relationships
with my colleagues in government as cochair
of the Queens delegation.”
legislation and a democratic majority
in Congress.
Maloney invited Stephanie Chauncey,
a resident of the Queensbridge Houses
and an activist, to speak about what she
sees on the ground in the largest housing
development in the country.
“We cannot continue with this lawlessness,”
Chauncey said. “Th is summer —
it was scary. When we come out of our
houses, you have no idea what we’re going
to have to face— coming home from
work and not knowing if you’re going
to get home safe. It’s a crisis and we’re
facing it as a community but we don’t
know what to do. We want to be safe. Th e
gun activity in this community has
become outrageous.”
Gun violence has
increased in the
city, with 100
reported shootings
in January
alone and a
38.5% increase
in nearly all
major crimes.
According to
NYPD statistics,
gun arrests have
drastically increased from
2,952 arrests in 2018 to
over 4,000 in 2020.
Many of the illegal fi rearms
do not come from
New York City or even the
state. Th e “Iron Pipeline,” which many politicians
have blamed for the gun violence crisis,
describes the route guns take from corrupt
sellers south of New York, along the
I-95 corridor. According to the U.S. attorney
general, about 70 percent of likely-traffi cked
guns recovered in New York
originated in Iron Pipeline
states like Pennsylvania,
Virginia, the Carolinas,
Georgia and Florida.
Maloney’s set of bills would
make traffi cking guns a
felony and impose
stricter penalties for
people who buy
guns for convicted
felons and others
who are prohibited
from buying
guns on their
own.
“Traffi cking and
selling thousands of illegal
guns should be a
felony, not a slap on
the wrist,” Maloney
said. “I think it is a
national scandal that
we have so many gun
deaths. We will be
fi ghting and working
very hard to bring it to the fl oor for a vote.”
Fred Guttenberg, who became an activist
aft er his daughter was killed in the
Parkland, Florida school shooting, came
to Queensbridge to speak about the
national health emergency gun violence
poses to the country.
“Across America, gun violence is now
the norm,” Guttenberg said. “We now
have 400 million weapons on the streets of
America— it is the reason why my daughter
will forever be 14, why too many kids
in this community are getting killed and
it’s fi xable.”
Another activist, Greg Jackson, the
executive director of the Community
Justice Action Fund, said that he has personally
been a victim of gun violence.
“I don’t do this work by choice, I do this
work by circumstance,” Jackson said. “In
2013, I was shot as an innocent bystander
when someone mistook me for someone
else. I ran and stumble and hid, I was
seconds away from being fi nished off for
something I knew nothing about. Th e
trauma I live with every day is a reality for
too many people in this country.”
Most recently, Mayor Eric Adams said
he is reinstating the controversial plainclothes
police unit, a special anti-crime
force with offi cers on the ground in neighborhoods
across the city dressed in modifi
ed uniforms. Adams announced in a
recent press briefi ng that four precincts in
south Queens — the 101st, 103rd, 105th
and 113th — will be getting plainclothes
teams. Th e 114th Precinct in Astoria will
also be utilizing the plainclothes unit.
City Councilwomen Nantasha Williams (l.) and Linda Lee
Photo by Julia Moro
Activist Greg Jackson speaks about
his experience being shot and the
desperate need for gun control in the
country.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
