Today is the anniversary of my son’s death. On March 1, 1994, Ari traveled to Manhattan with his fellow students to pray for his rabbi, who was undergoing surgery. Afterwards, 15 of them boarded a van to drive back to Brooklyn.
Rashid Baz, a radicalized Lebanese immigrant, followed the boys from the hospital and onto the Brooklyn Bridge. He owned an arsenal, including assault weapons (a Cobray submachine gun and a Streetsweeper shotgun), a Glock and a .380 pistol, as well as magazines and loads of ammunition. Baz caught up to the van, picked up his submachine gun and fired an initial burst of 18 bullets. In a flash, my beloved Ari was fatally wounded and a friend permanently injured.
The Cobray jammed, so Baz picked up the Glock and continued firing, seriously wounding another two of Ari’s friends. The FBI would later classify Ari’s murder as terrorism.
To me, the debate about gun violence obviously hits very close to home. Baz’s Cobray worked pretty much as intended: not accurate, but deadly in the hands of a terrorist filled with hate. And it is just one of the countless illegal (as all of Baz’s guns were) but lethal weapons that end up on the streets of New York.
In 1998, I sued the maker of Cobray and six other manufacturers of gun parts, alleging that they were responsible for Ari’s murder and the injury to his friends. We lost that battle; but we have to win the war against firearms — and we can. Yet there is a lot of fighting left to do.
While both Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg have been forceful advocates of stricter gun controls, as has Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, we cannot insulate New York from other states where gun laws are much weaker. For example, investigators traced one of Baz’s guns to a legal sale in Florida: In fact, 85% of all the guns used in New York crimes come from other states.
So while Ari’s Law, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and signed by then-Gov. Pataki, prohibits interstate gun trafficking, guns continue to travel up the so-called Iron Pipeline, with weapons from the Carolinas, Virginia, Florida and Georgia relentlessly moving north.
Enough is enough. Some gun dealers outside New York turn a blind eye when straw purchasers buy an armload of guns — for a second, third and fourth time, all with the intention of selling them to aspiring criminals. Clearly, these weapons will not be used on a hunting trip or to round out a collection. Indeed, federal authorities estimate that 40% of guns used in crimes nationwide were bought via straw purchase. And yet dealers continue to fill their pockets with straw buyers’ money.
Of course, not all gun dealers are helping perpetrate crime. Data show that 60% of the guns used in crimes nationwide come from only 1% of gun dealers. Very simply, they have to be prevented from conducting such sales — which is why Bloomberg has sued rogue gun dealers in the past.
And it’s not just people who sell guns, but those who buy them, too. Congress should require comprehensive background checks, which presently cover only 60% of purchases. The gun show loophole allows for people to buy guns with minimal scrutiny. In the wake of the murders in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., and elsewhere, we clearly have to be more careful about whom we sell guns.
Very often, tragedy can be the catalyst for change. My fervent prayer is that I can save even one mother the anguish of learning that her child has been shot. Too many families have lost their children to gun violence; too many have suffered too much heartache and too much misery.
Now is the time to come together and act. I hope that Ari’s memory can help move Congress and leaders across the nation. I’m not asking for a perfect solution; I’m asking only for a solution that will save lives.
Halberstam is the director of foundation and government services at the Jewish Children’s Museum, which is dedicated to the memory of her son Ari.
By Devorah Halberstam / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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