Vigil recalls Sandy Hook

Sherrie Tamar survived the Washington Navy Yard shooting in 2013 but didn’t consider herself a victim, or survivor, because she wasn’t hit by gunfire.

Eventually, grief, psychological trauma and even guilt in the aftermath of the fatal shooting, which killed 12, including three of Tamar’s friends, caught up with her. She suffered a stroke about a year later.

Tamar, who now lives in Colorado, spoke Wednesday night in Denver at a Candlelight Vigil in Remembrance of Sandy Hook and all those Affected by Gun Violence.

“I ran for my life,” Tamar told about 75 people gathered at Denver’s Messiah Community Church. “But I struggled to think of myself as a survivor.”

The Navy Yard shooting happened on a Thursday, Tamar recalled. She was back to work, with colleagues, on Monday. Still, “I couldn’t sleep at night,” Tamar recalled. “I was constantly hearing gunfire.”

Tamar, in search of support, found The Rebels Project. A Colorado group formed by Columbine High School survivors in the wake of the Aurora theater shooting. “They greeted me with open arms,” she said of the project. “I chose to move here.”

Former state Sen. Evie Hudak, who resigned her seat in 2013 in a recall effort against her by gun-rights activists, also spoke. Hudak mentioned several Colorado shootings — Aurora, Columbine, Planned Parenthood: “I can’t think of a sadder reason for us to be gathering here together.”

Hudak, a Democrat, urged the crowd to support legislators who support gun control.

Eileen McCarron, president of Colorado Ceasefire, read from a statement by President Barack Obama, given Wednesday, the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting at the Connecticut school.

“As a country, we have been through this too many times,” Obama said from the White House. “Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown or a shopping mall in Oregon or a temple in Wisconsin or a movie theater in Aurora or a street corner in Chicago — these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children.”