On June 8, 2014, my family and I went to our local Walmart after church.
We split up at the store but reunited again at checkout. That’s when we heard shouting and gunshots at the front doors. My mom tried to duck under the cash register, in the vicinity of the shooters. My brother tried to run in the opposite direction. I decided to grab them both by the wrists and push us all towards the fire exit.
Luckily, we all survived.
We found out later that day that the perpetrators murdered two brave police officers before they entered the Walmart, and they murdered another: a shopper who was armed.
In 2018, I helped organize the March For Our Lives march that happened in downtown Las Vegas. Our small team of student activists only expected a few hundred to show up — the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper reported it in the thousands.
Later that November, Nevada elected pro-gun safety candidates. The march brought everyone under the sun: Democrats, Republicans, Independents, gun owners, moms and dads. It reminded me that we all want to live in a world free of gun violence.
We need everyone, in every town, to keep fighting.