LONG ISLAND, N.Y. –– Former New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who became a leading advocate for gun reform after her husband was killed and son wounded in a mass shooting aboard a Long Island Rail Road train in 1993, has died. She was 81.
Known as the "Gun Lady” of Capitol Hill, McCarthy served nine terms in Congress – representing Long Island’s 4th congressional district, which encompasses swaths of central and southern Nassau County, from 1997 to 2015.
Born Carolyn Cook in Brooklyn, New York, McCarthy attended high school on Long Island and worked for 30 years as a licensed nurse in the intensive care unit of Glen Cove Hospital after earning her nursing degree.
On Dec. 7, 1993, a gunman named Colin Ferguson opened fire with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol on an evening commuter train traveling from New York City to Long Island, killing six people and injuring 19 others. McCarthy’s husband, Dennis, was among the dead, and her son, Kevin, was shot in the head and critically injured. The father and son had been heading home on Long Island together from work in Manhattan.
Other passengers aboard the train tackled and held down Ferguson, who was later convicted and sentenced to at least 315 years and 8 months to life behind bars.
Motivated by the shooting that devastated her family, McCarthy began advocating for gun safety and legislation to reduce and prevent gun violence. She traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby in support of then-President Bill Clinton’s 1994 crime bill, and made her first bid for elected office in 1996, running against and defeating Republican incumbent Rep. Dan Frisa after he opposed a ban on semi-automatic weapons.
Among her legislative achievements in Congress, McCarthy sponsored and worked to pass the NICS Improvement Amendments Act in 2007 – a law aiming to close loopholes in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in the wake of the Virginia Tech mass shooting.
While best known as a fierce advocate for gun legislation, McCarthy also contributed to education, healthcare and financial reform policy.
When McCarthy announced her retirement from Congress in 2014, then-President Barack Obama said that she had “earned a reputation for principled and compassionate leadership” and that he and then-First Lady Michelle Obama admired her “determination and personal strength.”
New York Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi posted a tribute to McCarthy Thursday, saying they first met in 1994 when he was the mayor of Glen Cove – a city on Long Island – and McCarthy's son, Kevin, was undergoing rehabilitation following the shooting at Glen Cove Hospital.
“Our nation and our Island have lost a fierce champion,” he wrote on X.
Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., who now serves in McCarthy’s former seat, said that she was saddened to hear of McCarthy’s death and called her a tireless advocate for Long Island.
“We must honor her legacy by continuing her life's work to keep our communities and our children safe from the scourge of gun violence,” Gillen said in a message on social media.