Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), said she hoped President Obama’s call for “meaningful action” to prevent future tragedies like Friday’s mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school would renew discussion about gun control.

“The Second Amendment is the law of the land but it was never intended to allow murderers to take the lives of innocent kids, ” McCarthy said in a statement.

McCarthy, a 15-year veteran of Congress, has long crusaded for reforming the nation’s guns laws. Her husband, Dennis, was one of six killed and her son was seriously injured during the 1993 shooting rampage on the Long Island Railroad.