Friend,

I will never forget the days following the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 

Not even two weeks after the tragedy of gun violence shook our community, I met with survivors from Parkland. They were just kids. They were grieving. As an entire nation watched, they turned their grief into action – pleading with lawmakers like Marco Rubio who refused to pass laws to help prevent the sort of violence they lived through.

Do you know what the students from Parkland told me just days after they survived the shooting, friend? They told me they were scared to go back to school. 

They told me they were scared someone else would get their hands on a weapon of war like the one that killed their friends. That they, too, might be murdered by someone who never should have had a gun in the first place.

What I asked myself then – and what I've asked myself too many times following a mass shooting in this country – was this: What kind of nation are we when our children grow up scared to go to school?

What kind of nation are we when our children fear walking through a school doorway armed with metal detectors? What kind of nation are we when our communities, of all ages and backgrounds, feel fear at their places of worship? Fear malls, concert halls, movie theaters or nightclubs? Fear walking down the street?

It's a grave moral failing – made all the more grave by sellouts like Marco Rubio who have blocked legislation in the Senate, passed by me and other House members, that could save lives. You have my word as Florida's next U.S. senator, I will do so much better than Marco Rubio.

We have too many anniversaries like this, friend. Too many days out of the year where we look back on a tragedy that never should have happened. Too many days where mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, friends and loved ones are consumed by grief, reminded that someone precious was taken from them too soon. 

It's painful. But amidst pain, here's what I remember: The students and other survivors of Parkland chose bravery. Through their trauma, they organized. Through their pain, they spoke out. Through their anger, they marched. Through their love for those lost, they galvanized a movement that could not be overlooked – could not be dismantled by the corrupt influence of the gun lobby. 

Those of us elected to lead ought to follow their example – because only through bold, tangible change can we truly honor those taken from us. In Parkland. In Orlando. In far too many American communities. 

That's why, today, I want to reaffirm not just that my thoughts and whole heart are with the survivors of Parkland. My word is with them too, and my word is as follows: I will do whatever I can to end the scourge of gun violence in America.

Val Demings