Tralona Bartkowiak
Suzanne Fountain
Teri Leiker
Kevin Mahoney
Lynn Murray
Rikki Olds
Nevin Stanisic
Denny Stong
Eric Talley
Jody Waters

These are the names of the ten people killed when a gunman opened fire yesterday afternoon at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. Our hearts are with their loved ones and all those impacted by this tragedy.

Once again, we are mourning the senseless loss of life in the wake of yet another mass shooting. Once again, we are left wondering when will enough be enough?

We should be able to go to the grocery store free from the fear of gun violence. We should be able to go to work, to school, to the park, to a movie theater, to our place of worship, free from the fear of gun violence.

For the second time in a week we have been confronted by the horror of a mass shooting. We didn’t have time to grieve the senseless, hate-fueled attack in Atlanta before tragedy struck again bringing another painful example of the cost of inaction in the face of this epidemic.

These shootings rightly captured the nation's attention, but we know that countless other senseless shootings go by every day without making national headlines. Even as the pandemic upended almost everything about daily life, shootings persisted. In fact, 2020 recorded a record-breaking 611 mass shootings—50 percent more than in 2019. Public mass shootings, like Boulder and Atlanta, were less frequent but homes, neighborhoods, and communities across the country were broken by the scourge of gun violence.

We cannot afford more inaction. This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on expanding background checks to all gun sales—a crucial first step in preventing more needless bloodshed. These lifesaving policies died in the Senate in 2019 under Mitch McConnell’s leadership. Since then, 80,000 lives have been lost to gun violence. We cannot let that happen again.

Email your Senator today and demand more than thoughts and prayers.

Beyond background checks, our state and federal leaders must restrict access to the high-capacity magazines that so often fuel mass shootings. We have been fighting in Washington state for years to do just that. Today, we resolve to continue the fight to honor the victims of Boulder and all gun violence with action.

Renée (she/her)