Rally calls on state Senate majority leader to take action on gun violence

Long Island residents and a local state Senate candidate called on the Senate majority leader to take action on gun violence Sunday.
The March for Our Lives rally was held in front of Republican state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan’s office.
Protestors, including his opponent in the upcoming midterm election, Kathleen Cleary, say Flanagan has blocked a "red flag" gun control bill from a vote.
If passed, the bill could allow for court-ordered removal of guns from the homes of troubled students, something protestors say could save lives.

"He's an obstructionist as the most powerful man in the New York State Senate, he should be leading, he should be making decisions that protect us and he should not be beholden to NRA dollars,” says Cleary.
The rally comes as participants remember a Long Island resident who died in the Parkland school shooting.
Linda Biegel-Schulman is the mother of Scott Biegel, one of the 17 victims fatally shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Inside the sanctuary at Temple Beth Torah in Melville, she told a crowd Sunday that her son's death won't be in vain.
"It's time we take back our country from the vice grip of the NRA. We need leaders who will not take NRA blood money,” she said.
Biegel-Schulman tells News 12 that her continued fight for gun reform is personal.

"It's a no-brainer, it shouldn't be the people on the right or the people on the left. It should be the people in the middle, the middle of humanity and that's what it's all about,” she says.
News 12 repeatedly reached out to Flanagan's office for comment, but calls were not returned.