John, by now you’ve seen the news out of Colorado Springs about the mass shooting at Club Q on Saturday night. A radicalized person with access to an assault weapon committed a terrible hate crime against members of the LGBTQ+ community, and five families woke up on Sunday morning to the same heartbreaking news I received about my son Jordan 10 years ago this week. 

It is an utterly powerless feeling. And in a week when our country celebrates family and gratitude, the families of the dead and injured in Colorado will be trying to pick up the pieces and process their trauma.

John, I hate having to write these emails.

While we have passed historic gun safety reforms in Congress in recent years, it hasn’t been enough – the same headlines and the same types of tragedies play out over and over again, with my Republican colleagues only offering “thoughts and prayers,” instead of joining us to pass a federal assault weapons ban. 

The NRA values their own politics and extremist gun culture over the thousands of American lives lost to gun violence each year. Plain and simple. 

Here’s the other thing I’m thinking about today: These shootings – which are so often motivated by hate – make members of any marginalized community in our country feel less safe in their own skin.

If you’re an LGBTQ individual, this tragedy is particularly painful. When all of us heard the news, we probably thought about the Pulse Nightclub shooting almost immediately.

If you’re a Black American, your thoughts may have turned to Charleston or Buffalo, or the long history of racially motivated gun violence.

If you’re an Asian American, your thoughts may have turned to the Atlanta Spa shootings.

And if you’ve lost a child to gun violence like I have, you’re part of this club that nobody wants to join, and you know that safety can never be taken for granted.

John, I want you to know that l am bringing these stories – of those who died at Club Q, my son Jordan’s, and victims of gun violence all around the country – straight to the halls of the U.S. Capitol, where I’m continuing to lead the fight in Congress for gun safety reform. 

We will turn this pain into purpose. The pace of gun safety reform can be frustratingly slow, but we must persevere — we can not let hate silence or intimidate us.

With love,

– Lucy