Carolyn McCarthy (née Cook; born January 5, 1944) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for New York's 4th congressional district from 1997 to 2015.

McCarthy was born Carolyn Cook in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Mineola, a suburban area on Long Island about twenty miles outside Manhattan.

After caring for a boyfriend who was injured in a car accident, McCarthy decided to work as a Licensed Practical Nurse.

On December 7, 1993, her husband, Dennis, was killed, and her son, Kevin, was severely injured on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train at the Merillon Avenue station in the village of Garden City, when 35-year-old Colin Ferguson opened fire on passengers.

[5] McCarthy responded to the crime by launching a campaign for more stringent gun control that eventually propelled her to Congress in 1996 on the Democratic ticket.

In the biographical 1998 television movie The Long Island Incident, which portrayed these events, she was played by actress Laurie Metcalf.

[9] McCarthy's husband Dennis was murdered in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting, which first prompted her to run for Congress.

On April 16, 2007, after the Virginia Tech shootings, McCarthy issued a press release calling for "legislation to prevent further acts of gun violence".

[18] Shooter Seung-Hui Cho had passed a background check despite his mental health issues owing to an inconsistent sharing of records between the federal and state governments.

[20] In January 2012, McCarthy along with Senator Dianne Feinstein from California proposed a bill which would "ban the sale, transfer, manufacturing of importation of 150 specific firearms including semiautomatic rifles or pistols that can be used with a detachable or fixed ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and have specific military-style features, including pistol grips, grenade launchers or rocket launchers."

[29] In 2003, McCarthy introduced legislation prohibiting companies from compelling the retirement of older employees and denying them pension and benefits.

[49] Earlier in 2010, it was widely reported that McCarthy was considering entering the 2010 special senatorial election to challenge Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, owing to the latter's support for gun rights.

[50][51] Gillibrand had been appointed to the seat on January 23, 2009, by Governor David Paterson to succeed Hillary Clinton, who had left the Senate to become Secretary of State in the new Obama administration.

[59] On November 8, 2013, it was reported that McCarthy, who had smoked cigarettes for 40 years, was suing more than 70 companies claiming that she had developed lung cancer from asbestos.

[60][61][62] This was challenged by New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, who claimed McCarthy was part of a growing trend of cigarette smokers suing companies that once used asbestos, citing her nearly lifelong "pack-a-day" habit as evidence that she was knowingly bringing a bogus case and partaking in a widespread "asbestos scam".

[63] In January 2025, President Joe Biden named McCarthy as a recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal, along with nineteen others.