Liz Bishop-Goldsmith is making a difference legislatively

With these facts in mind, the New York City Council is considering two pieces of legislation to tighten laws on the purchase of ammunition. The proposed Local Law would require anyone buying ammunition to provide detailed information about his or her guns to the seller. The Assembly Bill would prohibit the sale of ammunition without proof of a handgun license.

The bills' prime sponsor, Council Member James Sanders, states that the motivation for this legislation came from his constituent Liz Bishop-Goldsmith, President of Mothers Against Guns (MAG). "I was deeply moved by her stories of personal loss and inspired by her work with Mothers Against Guns," Sanders commented. "If the city were to more strictly regulate who is permitted to purchase ammunition, we could make it more difficult for criminals to commit acts of gun violence, while also setting an example for the rest of the country."

Bishop-Goldsmith founded MAG in March 1994 after her 27-year-old godson, Purnell Williams, was shot and killed while moonlighting as a security guard at a nightclub in Jamaica, Queens. Not only was his death a tragedy to his fiancée, Veronica Dunn, and his 4-year-old son, Purnell, Jr., it left a void in the Rochdale Village community where he had co-founded a recreational group, RISE, that coached boys and girls basketball.

Recalled Bishop-Goldsmith, "I was writing the obituary for Purnell. While writing it I was inspired to form an organization as a support method for mothers and others who were experiencing the same grief I was. Prior to that I'd lost another godson to gun violence. I felt you can't just sit and say 'If, if, if.' Sometimes we have to say we can't let it be in vain. We have to get out there and do something and maybe prevent others from having to experience the same devastation."

MAG's objective is not to ban guns outright, but to advocate personal responsibility and practical legislation against gun violence. It has supported many successful pieces of legislation with those goals, and it also works to increase manufacturer responsibility and the strict enforcement of existing gun laws. Its viewpoint is that the key to stopping gun violence - or any violence - is to educate people to recognize the magnitude of the problem and to get them to participate in the solution.

As to what took her thought in the direction of limiting access to ammunition, Bishop-Goldsmith explained that in about 1998 or 1999 she was thinking about 'mag' - not as in Mothers Against Guns but as in magnum bullet. "I said to myself, 'The bullet. That is the cause of the problem. Without the ammunition, what is the use of a gun?'"

These ponderings also took her work in a new direction. "I sat there and thought about the bullet, and then I even thought of the acronym for it: Believers, United, Learning, Loving, Enduring Together."

Since then she's been working to get BULLET established as an after school program, focusing on conflict resolution for youth and families. "Our organization is really family oriented," she said. "We start with the entire group. We provide bereavement counseling and conflict resolution to families, and also offer kids, from six years old and up, after school alternatives such as tutoring, mentoring, and recreational activities."

Bishop-Goldsmith also thinks that children need to learn alternatives to violence at an early age. Studies have shown that most youth-related crimes happen during the after school hours, so after school programs are an excellent deterrent.

Even before she founded MAG, Liz Bishop-Goldsmith was known throughout her community for her activism. "I've always been very community minded," she stated. "Anything that I felt could be improved upon, I had no problem reaching out to our elected officials and voicing my concerns. I lobbied them quite often for different things."

She is extremely pleased about Council Member Sanders' willingness to grapple with the important issue of gun violence and said, "This is a fantastic thing because if we succeed in the passage of this - which I have every reason to believe we will - I really think that it's not just going to go city- and state-wide; it's going to go federal. Because it only makes common sense. If we can deter our youth and those with criminal intent from getting a hold of guns, and if we can make ammunition not so accessible to them, then I believe gun violence will drop tremendously."

For more information about Mothers Against Guns, contact Liz Bishop-Goldsmith at (718) 276-5802 or visit MAG's website at www.mothersagainstguns.org.