Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand describes her shift from defender of Second Amendment rights to advocate for gun control as an epiphany of sorts.
It came after a February 2009 meeting with the parents of Nyasia Pryear-Yard, a 17-year-old high school student fatally shot in Brooklyn.
Gillibrand had been appointed to the Senate weeks earlier by then-Gov. David A. Paterson.
She comes from a family of hunters and had never before met someone directly affected by gun violence.
But she was moved by the encounter, particularly as a mother.
"I felt the pain of those parents was something that I couldn’t dismiss," Gillibrand recalled in an interview in her U.S. Capitol office, adorned with artwork by her two young sons.
“I was wrong,” she said. “I just didn’t take the time that I should have to understand the issue from someone else’s perspective, not just from my own family or from my own community.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand walks near the Senate floor on Capitol Hill on Dec. 16, 2010. Photo Credit: AP/Alex Brandon
Gillibrand, 51, of upstate Brunswick, shares the story when she is asked about the policy reversals she made after transitioning from congresswoman representing a largely rural Hudson Valley district to senator representing the entire state.
She formerly held more conservative views on guns and immigration, but, in her nine years as New York's junior senator, she has swung steadily to the left on those and other issues.
In February 2009, Gillibrand told Newsday that she kept two rifles under her bed. The disclosure made headlines.
She had an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association then, but
