SCHENECTADY — Rob Cox knows all too well the devastating impact mass murder and gun violence can have on a community.

The Newtown, Conn., father and global editor with Thomson Reuters, visited Union College Tuesday to offer his views about the weekend massacre of 59 people in Las Vegas by a lone gunman shooting from a nearby high-rise hotel.

Cox, whose son attends Union, was part of group of Newtown residents and professionals who — in response to the December 2012 killings of students and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School — formed the grassroots organization Sandy Hook Promise in a bid to understand what happened in the quiet suburb.

He is no longer involved with the nonprofit group but still lends his support, speaking about the scourge of gun violence in America.

Sandy Hook Promise takes a proactive stance against gun violence by educating and mobilizing youth and adults on mental health and wellness programs that identify, intervene and help at-risk people.

Cox, who said he owns guns and is a hunter, said he believes the Las Vegas massacre could bring about change in the country music industry and cause some artists to reflect more on gun-related lyrics.

"It would not shock me at all to see this change things in the culture particularly in Country and Western, which is a more rural, more white, it's that part of Trump America," added Cox. "When you start to see when you go into an unfettered culture where this kind of thing can happen, it will change minds."

Saying the gun industry is in trouble financially, Cox also took aim at them — chiefly the NRA and their highly effective lobbying efforts in Washington.

"We have a political system that has allowed for a hostile takeover of a public safety matter in the hands largely of a group funded by the industry itself," Cox said. "They've turned this issue into a constitutional freedom question. ... The extent of the money they are able to inject into the political system makes it difficult for congressmen to fight for the public safety issue over being dinged or getting a D- or F-rating from the NRA."

He urged people to remain active.

"Laws will only change if people demand change, and people have to think about the culture of violence, the culture of civil discourse, and then the culture of firearms," he said.