Over 29 years ago, my parents were murdered by my mom’s uncle, who shot them and then shot himself. The pain still lives inside me.
My mom’s uncle was in his late 60s and had been a hunter all his life. My parents were also in their 60s. They knew that he was having mental health issues and knew he had guns, but obviously didn’t put the two together. He had always been a trusted relative. They did not understand the danger they were in. My daughter Katie was only one week old, and they never saw her. Senseless gun violence causes immense sorrow.
A gun in the wrong hands can be an instrument of death and can take away one’s inalienable right to life. We must do everything we can to make it harder for dangerous people to have access to guns, not easier. If more guns made us safer, we would be the safest country in the world. Sadly we are not. We have over 30,000 gun deaths a year.