Twenty-nine years ago, I, along with roughly a dozen other people, were shot in a mass shooting in a San Francisco office building – the 101 California Street shooting. Out of that shooting, came — thanks to Senator Dianne Feinstein and a broad coalition of lawmakers, citizens and activists — a national ban on weapons of mass destruction, aka assault weapons, such as the one used by the shooter that day.
That legislation lasted only a fixed number of years, and by the early 2000s, it lapsed. During these almost 30 years, even if you exclude suicide, almost a million Americans have died due to gun violence. For every one of these people, countless more were directly affected — family members, children, spouses, business and love partners, the list goes on and on.
We are now talking millions of people directly impacted, lives forever changed, careers lost, unending medical bills and surgeries for many survivors; the human and economic toll is vast. Yet, a small number of people stand militantly against even modest gun control regulations. When will the majority stand up and vote for people who will take action?