{"id":17976,"date":"2025-06-27T03:10:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T03:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17976\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T03:10:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T03:10:21","slug":"former-ny-rep-and-gun-control-advocate-carolyn-mccarthy-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17976\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NY rep. and gun control advocate Carolyn McCarthy dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carolyn McCarthy<\/a>, a former congresswoman from Long Island and fierce advocate for gun control, has died at age 81 after a years-long battle with cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A former nurse, McCarthy got involved in politics following the December 1993 massacre on the Long Island Rail Road<\/a> in which six people, including her husband Dennis, were fatally shot and 19 others, including her only child Kevin, were wounded by gunman Colin Ferguson.<\/p>\n

Following Ferguson\u2019s trial, McCarthy became an activist for gun control and later defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Frisa in the 1996 midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell people, you don\u2019t know the strength you have in you, until you are faced with what you have to deal with,\u201d she told CBS News New York<\/a> in 2014. \u201cAnything I can do to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen to anyone else, I will give my life to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Democrat, McCarthy served the 4th Congressional District, which covers central and southern Nassau County, from 1997 until 2015 when she retired to receive treatment for lung cancer.<\/p>\n

During her time in the House of Representatives, she worked to strengthen background checks, child-proof gun triggers, limit large ammunition magazines and disqualify those with mental health conditions and criminal records from buying guns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to make a difference,\u201d she told CBS News.<\/p>\n

President Biden awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said Thursday that he\u2019d ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in McCarthy\u2019s honor and that the county would find a street to name after her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently spoke with her about the 125th anniversary of Nassau County and invited her to attend the county\u2019s gala as an honored guest,\u201d Blakeman said in a statement. \u201cUnfortunately, she wasn\u2019t feeling up to it, but she expressed her best wishes and love for Nassau County. Carolyn was a true leader and a very decent person. She will be sorely missed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carolyn McCarthy, a former congresswoman from Long Island and fierce advocate for gun control, has died at age…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1370,108,17259,405,403,8989,50,17260,5226,5225,5228,5227,593,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-17976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-national-news","11":"tag-national-politics","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-politics","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-news-obituaries","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-obituaries","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114753137807009139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}