From grief to gun safety

Parkland survivors mourn Georgia, Colorado victims

Survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, and family members of victims, joined Wednesday with half a dozen members of Congress from South Florida, Georgia and Colorado to mourn the victims of the nation’s two most recent mass shootings — and renew their push for gun safety legislation.

With Americans hopeful as the nation emerges from the worst of the COVID19 pandemic, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch said, “we were all looking forward to the moment when our lives would return to normalcy. This is not what we meant. Mass shootings should not be normal.”

Deutch represents Parkland, where 17 people were killed in the Feb. 14, 2018, Stoneman Douglas massacre. Others assembled via video conference, all of whom are Democrats, included U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, where eight people were killed in the March 6 Atlanta-area spa shooting spree, and U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse and Jason Crow of Colorado, where 10 people were killed at a Boulder supermarket on Monday.

The refrains offered Wednesday by the family members, survivors and elected officials are offered again and again after every mass shooting. Wednesday was the three-year anniversary of March for Our Lives, when people mobilized in Washington, D.C., and in cities throughout the country to demand action on guns in the aftermath of the Parkland massacre.

“The changes we were demanding then are the same changes we are demanding today,” Deutch said.

Neguse, whose district includes Boulder supermarket where Monday’s shooting took place, said his community is reeling.

“This tragedy is not ours alone. It’s one carried by a nation that has witnessed horrific gun violence far too many times in Parkland, in El Paso, in Newtown, in Las Vegas, in Dayton. The list goes on and on. And I for one believe that enough is enough. It does not have to be this way,” Neguse said. “This has to be the moment when we get something done, because we can’t afford not to act — as Americans and Coloradans are being killed, literally every day, day after day, year after year.”

Neguse’s comments sounded exactly like what South Floridians Deutch, and U.S. Reps. Lois Frankel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, were saying three years ago in the immediate aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas massacre.

Wasserman Schultz said people must “demand an end to this wanton bloodshed.”

But, she said, she can’t say Wednesday’s virtual gathering would be the last. “I wish I could say we won’t be gathered again like this,” she said.

The Stoneman Douglas family members and survivors, who are now active in multiple organizations promoting gun safety, and the Democratic elected officials in the video conference, want the Senate to act on two gun bills passed by the House this month.

One measure would close loopholes and require background checks for private and online sales, including at gun shows. Another would allow a 10-day review period for gun sales, up from the current three-day maximum.

In addition, Deutch said President Joe Biden should travel the country to rally support for the background-check legislation. He said the president could mobilize people to contact recalcitrant Republicans to support the legislation.

Still, it’s difficult to see how the proposals become law. Unless the Senate changes its filibuster rule, 60 votes are required for passage, which means at least 10 Republicans would need to support the legislation.

And the effort to win support isn’t gaining support.

For example, in the last Congress, U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, and Brian Mast, R-Palm City, both supported background-check legislation.