Talk Bronx New York

 

Gloria Cruz, at St. Ann’s Church, leads Bronx chapter of New Yorkers against gun violence.

 

 The last Saturday in April was a hot, sunsplashed day, but Gloria Cruz spent it in Immaculate Conception Church on Melrose Ave. and E. 150th St., one of the sites of the gun buyback program sponsored by the Police Department and District Attorney Robert Johnson.

People walked in with all kinds of firearms, and got a $200 cash card in exchange for handguns, rifles and shotguns - $20 for air pistols and BB guns.

Cruz was there as leader of the Bronx chapter of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

After the Binghamton massacre, and several shootings across the nation committed by people who shot their families and themselves - “57 people in one month in the U.S.,” Cruz said - more people have joined her group.

“At least 20 people called and said they want to get involved,” she said. “They are outraged and upset. They want to toughen up gun laws, the gun show loopholes.”

Sadly, there are five more members in the group, who joined because they lost children to gunfire.

Cruz, 48, has been trying to do something about guns since the murder of her niece.

On Labor Day 2005, at a block party on E. 139th St. and Brook Ave., her 10-year-old niece, Naiesha Pearson, took a ride on her new bicycle. The pedal jammed, and she asked a neighbor to fix it. As the two crouched over the bike, a gunman came up and fired several shots at the man. One bullet hit Naiesha in the chest.

The gun buyback is just one of several initiatives Cruz is involved in.

She said it went great. “We got a lot,” she said.

But she didn’t know just how great a success it was until four days later, last Wednesday, as she rode on a bus from Albany with students from Validus Preparatory Academy. They had taken the trip to convince legislators to pass stricter gun laws.

Johnson and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced at a news conference that day that a whopping 987 guns were turned in to six churches in just six hours.

It validates what Cruz has been telling people for years: “There are so many guns on these streets.”

The NYPD/DA gun buyback program at the Bronx churches collected the largest number of guns turned in during one day since the department began its church-sponsored buyback last summer.

Among the weapons in the cache turned in during the buyback were 296 revolvers, 174 semiautomatic pistols, 21 assault weapons, 13 sawed-off shotguns, 242 rifles and 163 shotguns.

Cruz sounded tired, but happy, on the bus, because of the number of guns that were removed from Bronx streets, and because the 26 students from Validus Prep had been able to speak their piece.

“The kids met with a lot of politicians, and Speaker Sheldon Silver spoke to the kids,” said Cruz.

“The students got to speak with all of them about what’s going on.”

What is going on is that a few days before the gun buyback, there were rumors in the neighborhood that a 14-year-old boy was caught on Beekman Ave. with two AK-47s and two .380 pistols in shopping bags.

What is going on is that the senior class of the new Validus Prep has lost two students to gunfire.

Nadairee Walters was killed last Nov. 16 outside an apartment party in Morris Heights. Two other teenagers were wounded.

Two years earlier, Cruz said, student Marcus Jackson was killed.

“They would have been part of the first graduating class of Validus,” Cruz said.

She and the students went to the capital to show their support for bills that would put tougher restrictions on dealers and holders of gun licenses.

A bill that requires that semiautomatic pistols held by any licensed dealer in New York state to be capable of microstamping has languished.

Microstamping means that when a gun is fired, information identifying the make, model and serial number of the gun is stamped onto the cartridge as numbers and letters, enhancing law enforcement’s tracing efforts.

“It still has not been passed,” Cruz said. “But we’re still trying.”

All of this work is leading up to the annual rally Cruz’s group sponsors.

This Sunday, Mother’s Day, will mark the fourth annual Walk Against Gun Violence, a poignant ritual with marchers bearing the photos of young people who were slain with guns.

At the spot where Naiesha was killed, Cruz and dozens of parents will begin their pilgrimage, walking to St. Ann’s Church, where Cruz has her office, where she works so that maybe, someday, such a march will not be needed.

SOURCE

Tags: Albany, bronx, Bronx Neighborhood News, Bronx News, Bronx People, Events In The Bronx, firearm, Gloria Cruz, gun, Immaculate Conception Church, law, Melrose, Melrose Ave, Morris Heights, neighborhood, new york, NYPD, NYPD, Police Department, Robert Johnson, St. Ann's Church, The Bronx, Validus Preparatory Academy, weapon, weapons

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