The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.
I’ve had a bullet lodged in my back since 2011, when a gunman opened fire on me and others at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ “Congress on Your Corner” event.
I was waiting in line with my teenage children when it happened, hoping to get a picture with Giffords. My then 17-year-old daughter, Emma, had spent the previous summer working as a congressional page in Giffords’ office and couldn’t wait to see her again.
Then, out of nowhere, the shooting began. It was a sound I will never forget for as long as I live, and my fear for my children took over, outweighing any fear for my own safety. I threw my daughter against a wall and covered her with my body.
The gunman shot me twice —once in the arm as he ran toward us, and again in the other arm when he tried to shoot my daughter through me. Finally, knowing he would shoot me again, I turned to face him. I wanted to force him to look into my eyes as he killed me. Instead, he lowered the gun and shot me in the back, a bullet that remains in my body as a physical reminder of the psychological trauma my family and I live with every day.
The 22-year-old gunman who killed six people and shot and wounded 13 that day, including me, acted erratically before the shooting and, in my opinion, should never have been able to purchase a firearm. But lax laws didn’t stop him from purchasing that gun and shattering so many lives.
Since that day, we have seen the same tragic story play out in communities across America, from mass shootings to daily gun violence to the suicide crisis that ravages our country every day. What we have not seen is meaningful action to keep our families safe.
That is why I write today. This is the one-year anniversary of the day the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 8 — a bill that would require background checks on all gun sales, thus keeping guns out of the hands of convicted felons and domestic abusers.
One year ago, I hoped the bill would become law; it was the first major gun legislation passed by either chamber of Congress in two decades, and it boasted bipartisan support in Congress and overwhelming support from the American people. But for the past 365 days, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to give HR 8 a vote in the Senate.
Our senator, Martha McSally, has failed us, too. Not only has she refused to support background checks on all gun sales, but when she ran for Congress in 2012, she called any effort to close background check loopholes “absolutely unconstitutional.”
This type of obstruction has earned McConnell and McSally A- ratings from the NRA. Worse, it proves that they would rather take the gun lobby’s money than protect their constituents’ lives, even though 93% of American voters — including 87% of gun owners — support background checks on all gun sales.
Tragically, their inaction has already had deadly consequences. During the year McConnell has allowed HR 8 to sit on his desk untouched, an estimated 38,000-plus people have been killed by gun violence in the U.S. and twice as many have been wounded.
Here in Arizona, more than 1,000 people have been killed by guns and thousands more have been shot and wounded.
As a gun owner, a parent and a citizen, I refuse to accept that as normal. Our children should not have to grow up with the terrible knowledge that any ordinary day, in any place, can end in gun violence, terror and death. Nor should anyone have to experience what we did at Giffords’ event nine years ago.
Fortunately, both McConnell and McSally are up for reelection this fall, and I know that when I go to the ballot box, I will be thinking about my children and the bullet I carry with me wherever I go.
And, most of all, I’ll be grateful that while McConnell and McSally can prevent a vote on HR 8, they cannot prevent us from voting them out.
