Today marks nine years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

On that Friday morning, I was serving jury duty. When the news broke, I immediately returned to my classroom. I knew my students would have questions – and even though I didn’t have answers, I wanted to be with them.

I will never forget how helpless I felt on that day.

It is a feeling that has returned over and over again. In response to tragedy after tragedy – from Sandy Hook to Las Vegas to Parkland – and in the wake of the tragedy in Michigan just a few weeks ago, we have taken no significant action to curb mass shootings.

In 2012, we said Never Again – yet, we haven’t changed our federal laws. So today, as a lawmaker, I carry the knowledge that we have not done everything we can to prevent tragedies like Sandy Hook from occurring again in communities across our nation.

Gun violence is an epidemic that will not solve itself. It will take true leaders making the right choices and all of us doing the hard work. It will mean making the choice of envisioning a future for our children that will empower them, instead of leaving them in fear. It is urgent and necessary work, because our kids and our educators deserve to feel safe at school.

For the communities devastated by mass shootings, we must show courage and take action. We owe it to every person we have lost in these tragedies. We owe it to their families and their communities to prevent the next tragedy before it happens. Thank you for standing with me in the fight for a safer and better future.

With love and strength,

– Jahana