The Shooting at My Son's School

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Dear John,

Like many of you, Uvalde is still very much on my mind. For me the shooting has brought up a troubling memory from three years ago.

In May 2019, my oldest son’s school, STEM Highlands Ranch, experienced a mass shooting. Two students armed with guns and other weapons hidden inside guitar cases walked into the school and opened fire on their fellow students.

Luckily, brave students, among them Kendrick Castillo who was killed by one of the gunmen, rushed the gunmen and subdued them, ending the shooting. When the official report from the Douglas County Sheriff arrived, one was killed and eight had been wounded.

That day was the scariest day of my life, and, as an Iraq combat veteran, this does not come lightly. My son did not have his phone with him that day and, for two and a half hours, I waited for news that he was okay. Eventually, he called from a friend's phone and I was awash with relief.

I was lucky but, for hundreds of parents every year, that call never comes.

My opponent Congressman Ken Buck’s (R-CO) refusal to address the issue makes him complicit in this suffering. Buck’s dangerous rhetoric cannot be taken lightly.

Before the children at Uvalde were even buried, he was shouting “We need AR-15s to kill Raccoons.” Then, in 2020, he threatened Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke with an AR that he has hanging on his wall in his DC Congressional office.

It gets far worse, however. Immediately after the shootings in Kenosha, Congressman Buck appeared at a fundraiser for Lauren Boebert wearing a shirt that said “Kill ‘Em All, Let God Sort ‘Em Out.” An overt dog whistle to his militant followers that their Congressman condoned the shooting and to keep it up.

I do not say this lightly. Buck is a dangerous and disturbed man who does not deserve to hold office. Every day that he continues to hold office is another day that he has a platform from which he can try to instigate more violence. For the safety of Coloradans, and all Americans for that matter, please help me by contributing whatever you can so we take away Buck’s platform for encouraging violence.

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Over the past two decades, I have watched in horror as violence like what I bore witness to in Iraq slowly crept its way into my country. I will not sit idly by as our nation becomes overtaken by terror and violence orchestrated by the extreme right, and I hope you won’t either.

It’s now or never. The time to push back is now.

Yours in the fight,

Ike McCorkle
Canidate CO-04
USMC Retired

Ike McCorkle is the combat wounded Marine Force Recon Vet and Democratic nominee in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, running against the racist, corrupt, misogynistic Ken Buck.

Ike McCorkle for Congress

10158 Stoneridge Ter

Parker, CO 80134-9505

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