Gun control crusader and former U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York has died. She was 81. McCarthy was a political novice who successfully ran for Congress in 1996 as a crusader for gun control after a mass shooting on a New York commuter train left her husband dead and her son severely wounded.

Ms. McCarthy’s political career began with tragedy in December 1993, when her husband was among six people killed in a shooting on a Long Island commuter train.

Longtime former Democratic New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy died Thursday at her home in Fort Myers, Florida. She was 81. No cause of death was given, though she had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013.