Nevada needs leaders who prioritize gun safety

The Route 91 Harvest music festival used to be a weekend to listen to my favorite type of music and spend joyful time with friends and family. For many of us Nevadans, easy accessibility to experiences like the festival is a privilege of living in the entertainment capital of the world.

But that feeling of freedom and comfort was taken from me five years ago. On October 1, 2017, while at Route 91 Harvest under the shadow of the Mandalay Bay, my life was forever changed when more than 1,000 bullets came raining down on me and the others in the crowd that night.

To my left and right, people dropped — shot dead. In under 10 minutes, over 50 people were killed, more than 400 were injured from gunshot wounds, and hundreds more were injured from the ensuing stampede. My sister and I were lucky to escape death, but we could not escape the trauma of surviving.

My experience as a survivor of gun violence is not unique. Over half of American adults are survivors of gun violence, either experiencing it themselves or caring for someone who has experienced gun violence in their lifetimes. And sadly, losing loved ones to gun violence becomes more common every day. Mass shootings have become normal as we watch places formerly considered mundane in our daily lives, like grocery stores and schools, scarred by shootings. The daily gun violence that doesn’t always make headlines kills over 100 people a day.

Those of us who call Nevada home know the pain of gun violence all too well. In an average year, over 500 people die from gunshot wounds in our state. Though Nevada’s gun violence epidemic isn’t unique, we’re different from some of our neighboring states in that we are actively trying to combat it.

In the five years since the Las Vegas massacre, Gov. Steve Sisolak has led the state to prohibit the possession and sale of bump stocks and other devices that can be used to convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic guns — like the one used by the Oct. 1 gunman that allowed him to shoot hundreds of people in a matter of minutes.

This summer, Nevada divested from any business that profits from the sale or manufacture of assault weapons. Sisolak led Nevada to pass an “extreme risk” law, which can prevent tragedy before it strikes by temporarily removing guns from someone who poses a serious threat to themselves or others. And just recently, Sisolak also secured additional funding to help implement this critical tool to save lives.

At the federal level, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-nev., has championed gun violence prevention by listening and sharing my personal story, co-sponsoring the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act and helping pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the first major federal gun safety law in 26 years. Even though this bill was supported by both Democrats and Republicans, Cortez Masto’s opponent, Adam Laxalt, has openly criticized it, and the gun lobby has donated millions of dollars to support his candidacy.

Put simply: Gun-sense champions like Sisolak and Cortez Mastro are fighting for our safety. They’re fighting to make sure an evening of music doesn’t turn into fleeing for your life under a barrage of gunfire. We must continue electing leaders who will prioritize this public health crisis because this November, gun safety is on every level of the ballot.

The trauma of the Las Vegas mass shooting will be with me the rest of my life. That’s why I have dedicated myself to advocating for gun violence prevention. We need to make sure other families aren’t ripped apart by senseless gun violence.

We need to continue to elect leaders who will make ending gun violence their priority.