June 18, 2010

By Steven D. McDonald

Steven D. McDonald is an injured NYPD officer who lives in Malverne.

On July 12, 1986, my life changed forever.

I was a 29-year-old New York City Police officer and was shot three times in the head and neck while on patrol in Central Park. The incident has left me quadriplegic and reliant on a respirator to breathe.

Still, I'm fortunate to have survived. Many victims of gun violence don't. At least five people have been shot to death in Nassau County since Saturday, and some of the suspects remain at large.

Unfortunately, our state representatives seem to be paying little attention to the bloodshed. In Albany on Tuesday, seven of the nine Long Island state senators voted against common-sense legislation to help police track down the criminals who use guns.

The legislation would require that all semiautomatic handguns sold in New York State be equipped with microstamping technology, which imprints a tiny mark on the shell casing of each bullet fired. It's cheap, effective and would in no way infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

I was in Albany on the day of the vote to make this case to our legislators. I joined prosecutors, police chiefs and mayors from across the state. It was an extraordinary coalition - leaders who work tirelessly to fight crime and to keep criminals off our streets. Many of these men and women must also deliver bad news to the families of victims in their communities.

More than 15 Long Island police departments publicly support microstamping, including the Nassau County Police Department, one of the largest departments in the country. A number of the chiefs were on hand at the event, including Hempstead Chief Joseph Wing, Malverne Chief John Aresta and Port Washington Chief William Kilfoil, who is the head of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police.

Later I met with individual Long Island senators. I told them about the incident that has left me confined to a wheelchair. I told them I haven't held my wife in my arms for 24 years. I told them how it's my voice that remains strong.

Yet it's that same voice, and so many others, that bounced right off the walls of their august chamber. Three upstate Democrats and all but one Republican - Sen. Frank Padavan of Queen - voted against the bill.

Sen. Martin Golden, a former police officer from Brooklyn, actually walked off the floor to avoid the vote. Usually a strong advocate for victims, here it seems he decided to play politics at the expense of smart policy.

But I am most disappointed by the minority leader, Sen. Dean Skelos, whom I have known for years. The Republican conference has, in the past, shown great leadership in fighting crime. In 2006, under a previous Republican leader and with the support of Gov. George Pataki, the New York State Senate passed the strongest illegal gun possession law in the country. Four years later, none of that leadership was on display.

Legislators will have the opportunity to correct their mistake. Two votes short of the 32 needed for passage, the bill was pulled from the Senate floor before it could be defeated. Now the clock is ticking. The legislative session ends at the end of June, and with each day that passes, more Long Island lives are in jeopardy.

Right now, in towns like Woodmere and Uniondale and Lakeview, families are mourning the loss of their loved ones. But will our senators help police catch gun criminals before they kill again?