Friend, 

On Saturday night, July 1st, Wesley Vasquez was shot and killed at Riverbank State Park in Manhattan while playing basketball. Wesley was only 15.

On that Monday, Lashyd Merritt was taking a break from work. He had just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend when he stepped outside of his house to walk to the store and get something to eat. He was shot twice and killed by a Philadelphia gunman, who shot and killed five people in total that night.

On Tuesday, Xavier Cordei Maddox attended a July 4th block party in his Salisbury, Maryland community with friends and family when two gunmen rang shots into the gathering. Attendees later said they couldn’t tell the difference between the firecrackers and the shots. One shot killed Xavier. He was 14. 

And early Wednesday morning, O’Mecia Brown received a call that her 17-year-old nephew Syncere had been shot and killed with three others at an annual 4th of July block party in Shreveport, Louisiana. Local authorities continue to search the area for other casualties. 

These are only four stories of victims from the extraordinary amount of gun violence that occurred across our country over the 4th of July holiday weekend. And while many know the extreme toll this holiday weekend took, those of us not personally connected are not likely to know the victims' stories. 

Shootings in this country have become so constant that the news of them is almost a normalized part of our daily lives. We cannot stay numb to the real lives and stories of the victims. We must wake up and increase the pressure on our Republican colleagues to reform our country’s gun policy. 

We can save the lives of people like Wesley, Lashyd, Xavier, and Syncere if we choose to. And I will do just that, day after day, until our communities are protected from the violence of guns.

Nydia