John,

You might spend six minutes today making a cup of coffee, scrolling through your social media between meetings, or even writing a Valentine's Day card to a loved one. (It will take you much less than six minutes to read this email). 

Six minutes. From start to finish, that’s how long it took the Parkland shooter to kill 17 students and staff with an AR-15 – four years ago today. 

I remember it like it was yesterday – how I was shaken to the core as soon as I started getting updates. How I prayed, I sobbed, and I continued to follow the news with horror.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, I expected so much better than “thoughts and prayers” from our nation’s political leaders. If the deadliest school shooting in our nation’s history couldn’t prompt them to act, then what would? Who could?

Brave kids and parents in the Parkland community began to speak up about this inaction, and use the platform they hadn’t asked for, but that had been thrust upon them. Parkland students formed March for Our Lives, building a movement to stand up, speak out, and demand accountability from our elected officials. 

I knew that I had to follow their lead. They inspired me to stand up and run for Congress – to tell my son Jordan’s story, and to use my own experience as a gun safety activist to elevate the issue at the federal level. 

Our work to create a society free of needless gun violence is far from over. Recent data has shown that shootings on school campuses are happening at a rate higher than ever before. 

So here is my promise to the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School kids and families I’ve grown close with over the last four years: I will always have your back. I will always be in this fight with you – side by side. And I will never stop fighting for gun safety reform to honor the legacy of the 17 members of your community who were gunned down on February 14, 2018. 

In solidarity,

– Lucy