Lois Schaffer

My past activities include: employment as a grants writer for non-profit organizations; namely, the Pearl Lang Dance Foundation and the affordable housing developer; Kimmel Housing Foundation. I have participated in marches and rallies in support of civil rights and to protest the war in Vietnam. I have been a gun safety advocate my entire life helping to enact sensible gun safety legislation on the state and federal levels. I am a Long Island, New York resident. In 1993, Carolyn McCarthy's husband and son were shot in the Long Island Railroad massacre. Carolyn McCarthy's congressional candidacy was initiated after the massacre and I was totally involved in her campaign.Ironically, from an advocate, I became a victim but consider myself a survivor. My daughter, a single working mother was killed by a teenaged burglar in possession of a stolen handgun. I had to do something, not only to honor the memory of my daughter, but to use as a platform in protest of the easy accessibility if guns and the power and greed of the National Rifle Association. So, "The Unthinkable: Life, Loss and a Mother's Mission to Ban Illegal Guns" was written and published by the first rate publisher, The Brown Publishing Group. The book has provided me with many opportunities to speak at various venues to raise awareness of the escalation of gun violence and what our society can do to counteract it.

Lois Schaffer

Articles:

Wife of Gun Victim Moves Toward Healing

Art Brings Hope: Faces Not Forgotten

Son’s Death Inspires Activism

Mother Responds to Gun Violence

‘Crazy’ Grief Dreams Often the Most Profound

Sacred ‘Force’ Brings Contact Between Mother and Deceased Daughter

Unthinkable

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