Virginia policymakers must act to stop gun violence

No more thoughts and prayers. It’s time for votes and laws.

Earlier this summer, 12 people were shot and killed by their coworker in a Virginia Beach municipal building. This act of senseless violence had a traumatic ripple effect on the entire community. Parents, partners, friends, and neighbors received news that their loved ones would not be coming home.

As I watched the news, my heart ached for the community and the families of those killed. I know what it is like for gun violence to touch your life out of nowhere — because 12 years ago, it happened to my family.

On April 16, 2007, I got a call that every parent in America has come to dread, but no one expects. It was my 19-year-old daughter Emily, calling from outside her classroom at Virginia Tech: “Hi, Mommy. I’ve been shot.”

I remember feeling helpless, panicked. A flurry of thoughts and emotions rushed through my mind. How could this have happened? Was my daughter going to be okay? What about the parents whose children did not survive? What were they going through?

And loudest of all: What on earth are we going to do now?

Our family was lucky — Emily survived her injuries. But for 32 others, their futures were violently cut short…