Pulse survivor: We must overhaul politics to end gun violence

Three years ago, I survived the Pulse nightclub shooting. But 49 others didn’t.

In 2016, I survived what at the time was the deadliest mass shooting in United States history, a distinction surpassed only a year later when 58 people in a crowd of Las Vegas concertgoers lost their lives. And just a few hours south of Pulse, and only a few months after the Las Vegas massacre, a gunman killed 17 students in Parkland at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.

Gun violence is an epidemic in this country. Mass shootings have become so commonplace that we barely flinch at reports on them. Yet, despite the overwhelming majority of Americans supporting stricter gun laws, Congress hasn’t enacted any new restrictions since 1994.

These injustices continue because of sophisticated gerrymandering by elected officials who can ensure that only voters who agree with them (including on gun reform) are allowed to help get them elected and stay in office. They also continue because of the influence of wealthy special interests, like the National Rifle Association (NRA), whose political spending has all but guaranteed that only lawmakers who support their views succeed politically. Together, they have silenced the voices of communities of gun survivors like me, suppressing our votes and our voices.

Gun violence forever altered my life. But our broken political system has made picking up the pieces to heal communities and prevent future mass shootings all but impossible. The more than 36,000 Americans killed by guns each year, and the millions of Americans who know a gun violence survivor, show why the U.S. Senate should pass the For the People Act, a groundbreaking democracy reform package recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would eliminate partisan gerrymandering and barriers to the ballot box, end big money in politics, and curb the culture of corruption. These reforms are critical in building a democracy that works for everyone, not just elites and special interests who profit from the status quo. Every Florida House Democrat voted for the bill. Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott should join them and call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to stop standing in the way and hold a vote.

As a response to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, a gun tragedy that claimed the lives of 20 children and six teachers, Congress attempted to pass two major pieces of legislation to ban assault weapons and require universal background checks on firearm sales. But both failed to pass the Senate due to intense lobbying backed by the NRA.

In the aftermath of last year’s Parkland shooting, student survivors sparked a modest change in Florida’s gun laws, when the state legislature voted to raise the minimum age for buying a firearm from 18 to 21. But even this was too much for the NRA, which stands to lose profits from fewer gun sales. It immediately filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the new law.

The For the People Act will curb the money in politics that has stopped lawmakers from enacting laws that might help put an end to the kinds of tragedies that touched my life and the lives of so many Americans. As long as wealthy elites are allowed to place profits over human lives, our country’s gun epidemic will only continue.

As survivors of gun violence, we’ve led the political activism for gun safety, meeting with legislators and organizing others to join the cause. But the For the People Act will also give activists a new tool to help fight this deadly epidemic: new voters. The bill requires state election officials to create an automatic voter registration system to register new voters from government sources like departments of motor safety, and requires states to provide same-day registration for federal elections.

Gun-safety advocates must continue to organize and turn out new voters — enough to counter the undue pressure the NRA places on legislators through campaign donations. The For the People Act is a major step toward building a society that prioritizes citizens’ safety over corporations’ profits.

It’s time for our lawmakers to eliminate partisan gerrymandering and barriers to the ballot box, end big money in politics, and curb the culture of unaccountable government. It’s time for our U.S. senators and Leader McConnell to stop standing in the way of the people. It’s time to fix our broken political system, which allows gun violence to continue. The lives of the millions of Americans affected each year are worth it.

The author, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting, is an activist and the mediarelations manager of Equality Florida.