Red, Blue, and Brady

62: Activism, School Shootings, and How to Define a Survivor

April 21, 2020 Brady
Red, Blue, and Brady
62: Activism, School Shootings, and How to Define a Survivor
Red, Blue, and Brady +
Become a supporter of the show!
Starting at $3/month
Support
Show Notes Transcript

On April 16, 2007, a gunman shot and killed 32 people in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at Virginia Tech. Colin Goddard and Reema Samaha were in French class that day--Colin was shot four times and survived, but Reema was killed.The horrible events of that day launched Colin into activism, as well as Reema's brother, Omar Samaha. Along the way they made friends with Christian Heyne, the Vice President of Policy at Brady, and each made undercover videos investigating the gun show loophole.

Today, all three again join host JJ to talk about Virginia Tech, gun violence, activism, and how to define a survivor. 

Mentioned in this podcast:

For more information on Brady, follow us on social @Bradybuzz, or via our website at bradyunited.org. Full transcripts and bibliography available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255. 
Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells, for their long standing legal support 
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

JJ:   0:07
Hey everybody. This is the legal disclaimer, where we tell you that the views, thoughts and opinions shared on this podcast belongs solely to our guests and our hosts, and not necessarily Brady or Brady's affiliates. Please note that this podcast contains discussions of violence that some people may find disturbing. It's okay. We find it disturbing too.  

JJ:   0:42
Welcome back, everyone to Red, Blue and. Brady. Today I am so proud to bring you part two of our great conversation with Colin, Omar and Christian. So if you haven't go back and listen to Episode 61 right now. In that episode, you'll meet these fine gentlemen. We talk a lot about activism and the gun show loophole. But in this episode, Colin, Omar, Christian and I break down what it means to be involved in activism itself. What do you go through and how we in gun violence and in the U.S. use the title of survivor. Then in our Unbelievable, But segment we're talking all about the dangers facing the Easter Bunny. And believe me, they are many. Finally, we're wrapping up with a sad remembrance and a rundown of some of the gun violence news that you need to know.  

JJ:   1:35
So I think right off the bat, Colin, you had some thoughts on advocacy.

Colin:   1:40
You mentioned earlier, I think the very similar series of of events and epiphanies that a survivor has as they get involved in advocacy, right,? They don't, like me, I didn't think this was gonna happen to me and then it did right? And then I learned, then I realized, Oh, I thought we did everything we could to keep innocent people from dangerous people. I didn't realize that we didn't have things like background checks etc. And then once that all starts to click, and then you realized Oh, there's people voting against this stuff, then you're like, Oh, well, like, this is the idea I had. You know, I'm gonna come to D.C. I'm gonna tell them my story. We're just gonna have a friend conversation, show them the data and gonna have these conversations, and then we're gonna get it done in a matter of months right?

JJ:   2:18
And once they know they'll fix it.

Omar:   2:20
Like who could say no to that?

Christian:   2:22
They just don't know, right? Like that's the idea right? They just don't know yet, I will go let them know.

Colin:   2:28
I felt so, looking back, I was so naive to this whole thing. But I feel like when you know, a lot of survivors follow that same trajectory, right? When something happens to them on this issue and gun violence happens to their lives, and then they are here by  advocacy, and they want to get involved. I've heard people echo that same sentiment of like, well, you know, we're gonna have our lobby day that we're gonna go up there, we're gonna have much conversations and then, like, it's gonna get done. And you have to say, Yes, go do this. Let's go. Because we're gonna get closer as a result of this. And we hope that this is going to get us that vote, get us out of the out of the committee on to the full floor, right, etcetera. Move the process along. But you know that it's challenging, because it's not the first time that you've been through that, right?

Christian:   3:20
Yeah, I remember hearing your dad Andy talk about this before, and I've stolen from and used all the time where he said that like all these shootings that have happened over these decades and years were like drops in a bucket, right? Were like from Columbine and on, you know, the JCC shooting. And then you know, Aurora and Wisconsin. Too many, too many, too many. They were just drops in these buckets. But then when Sandy Hook happened, seeing the face of you know, those 20 children, six educators that put their lives in peril to save these kids, other kids that survive, that it knocked that bucket over and it spread across the entire country. And we've never gone back from that. The momentum has continued to build. The media was so ready to write that article, the same article, they wrote all those times that we saw before, where it was like, Another, shooting happens. Nobody does anything about it. And that hasn't been the case. Like I said, I'm talking about things have been changing dramatically. I think part of it is the same story that you're talking about, right? That the shooting happens to you and you think, Oh, people just don't know about this. I'll get out there and I'll fix it. Then you meet people who have been experiencing this for decades. That have been in this fight for decades, that have realized it's a marathon and they always look at you and say If you want to get in this, we're here for you but buckle in right? And you realize that you just joined you know, this terrible, awful club of people that continues to grow. And I guess it was just a matter of time before people were able to see us to see folks in communities that are experiencing daily gun violence, to see people who are impacted by suicide, right, that we often don't talk about. All of these things have sort of converged and come together, and I think it's why we're winning and on the precipice of that real lasting change that we're fighting for1 so long.

Omar:   5:19
Yeah, I think to your point, when I think when this all first like started, we said it a lot. We were like we don't want this to happen to anyone else. We don't want this to...you don't want this..

Christian:   5:32
I do wanna take a moment as well to just say that like a really important part of my journey in my activism in the work that I've done is getting close to you guys, you know? And I think like not only not only coming out here was a leap of faith for me, right? And I didn't know what it was going to lead to or really what I was doing. Being able to meet up with you guys, get to know you guys, you know, really getting together. And we didn't talk a whole lot about our experiences as survivors in the movement. But just like when things were the hardest, getting together with you guys to shoot the shit and, you know, and to just like, mess around and be ourselves like that is and has always been a place of comfort for me. It's helped me, uh, especially as somebody who didn't have as much of the national spotlight, and it's not I don't say that to take anything away from your guys' experience, because I think there's a whole another layer of trauma that you guys had experience through people being in that public lens that I was saved from, right? But for me, there was another, you know, because none of us can compare or relate to some of that, you know, the trauma that each of us have experienced. For me, it was like, Why don't people care about my story, right? Like, why don't people care about my mom and all these people who were killed in my community? Like, why is that not something people care about. When I came here to D.C., you guys were, like, so inviting. And you had open arms and for my entire life, I'll always be appreciative for that. And it's been a wonderful thing to be able to all be at each other's weddings. Having Omar as a real estate agent. Yeah, it was good for me. I don't recommend it to anybody else, but I just I really love you guys, and I and I really appreciate you.

Christian:   7:18
Love you too, man. And we've been to each other's weddings, and you're the only one that doesn't have a kid.

Omar:   7:24
I got a dog. 

JJ:   7:27
Don't child shame on my podcast. 

Omar:   7:31
Well, dude, I actually remember when everything happened to you guys. Um, I was young, but I remember it. I remember hearing about it on TV and being like, that's terrible. Um, and then, you know, there were other things that happened after that. Other shooting tragedies and things like I did. You hear about them growing up. But it's the same thing. You never think it's gonna happen to you and all that stuff and it, you know, it brought a lot of people together like it brought us. But like there are so many communities out there that it's brought together. And it's like not the type of community that people want to be a part of necessarily. If we could all pick to go back to the way things were I'm sure we would. But like we are, where we are because of what happened to us and there's a lot of love. And there's a lot of, like understanding and appreciation and support. And there's also a lot of, like commitment to like being like, Hey, let's like, not let this happen other people and like going through this journey with you guys has been awesome too so I appreciate it.

Colin:   8:34
Totally, totally echo. I mean, I think the relationship with you guys was integral to my healing and recovery process, right? I also think it was integral to maintaining enthusiasm right when we were working on this issue at a really difficult point right where we felt like we were beating heads against the wall, right? And no one was listening. You know and it was really challenging to pull groups of people in together, you know? And the movement itself, was having challenges, right? And like, we weren't coordinating as much as we are today,

Omar:   9:06
We weren't even coalescing around background checks at the time, going in all different directions. 

Colin:   9:11
But to have, we had this friendship between the three of us from three different organizations working the same thing, but in different ways, right? But we all, you know, got that crazy hate mail piece in the mail.  We could laugh and make fun about. You have to do that awkward TV interview. That was weird. And, you know, it's something we could talk about, right? And all that other weird stuff that comes with this work as a survivor was great to be able to share that with somebody, to get it and be friendly about it. Um, so I really value that.

Omar:   9:45
I can remember you doing a big, I will not name names, a really big TV segment at one point and the person came up to you afterwards. He's very well respected and said something like, I believe this happened to you for a reason. You came to me and Omar and said I can't believe this person said that. It's all done with the best intentions but...

JJ:   10:09
And as someone who is really lucky in that I'm not a survivor, I haven't been touched by gun violence directly. It was weird when I started here I will be honest cause I was a little afraid. I was like, am I not going to be considered like an unauthentic team member? You know, because of that, it's it's not a club you want to be in, but it's also like a language that you can't learn right? So it feels a little bit like you're going to just sort of perpetually be...it's a group you can't get entrance to, and you don't want to gain entrance to and you're sad that people are in that group and you can't get them out. It's a really complicated feeling for work. Add on to the fact that technically you're my boss, and hierarchical positions. Um, I do yell at you a lot. 

Christian:   10:58
Omar you're not allowed to yell at me.

JJ:   11:07
But like I was blown away with, like how welcoming the Brady offices and how excited people were to, like have people here who were like, No, like, you like research and you care about gun violence like cool. What expertise do you have? And then, like, let's do it right And, like, go right into it.

Christian:   11:23
Because there is that element that Colin was talking about earlier, where for us, it's weird because I love these guys. I also wish that I didn't meet them right? Like there is that element of like, I wish I didn't know them. And for us to meet somebody like you, JJ, who is so motivated, so incredible on this podcast like the way that you are able to communicate in this medium, I use it all the time, and it's spectacular. But to do this and to be called to this because you have such a big heart and because you want to make sure that people don't go through what we've been through without being impacted. That takes a whole another level of, I think, courage. That is different for us because we're here because it happened to us already. So like we really, it's not just lip service, not just words. I mean really, really appreciate you being here.  

JJ:   12:17
I'm gonna cry now, that's really sweet Christian.

Christian:   0:00
Just don't tell anybody.   

JJ:   0:00
It's on a podcast.   

Colin:   12:29
You know, we kind of talked about right when we joined in this movement and where it was 2010 to where it is today right? Obviously, we would all acknowledge make the work that so many others put in before us, right? The Bradys and that whole crew CSGV all the other organizations, States United, all the organizations have been doing this work for years. I mean, years before us, right, they were able to educate us, right? To give us the perspective, to help us with the strategy to get to where we are today, right? I mean, so many social justice warriors who care about this issue and set up the Brady Bill, right?

Omar:   13:08
But like when I look back on like the Bradys and all the people who kind of started the movement. I'm like, Whoa, they were in it for the long haul that's really long, but it's totally necessary. As you can tell, it's completely necessary and who knows how...Hopefully the haul is not that much longer, but the more enthusiasm and the more like people actually like, speak out, the faster that's gonna happen. So, like, people like you have never even like experienced what we have.

JJ:   13:37
Yeah.

Omar:   13:37
I look at you guys and I'm like, I can't even believe you're doing what you're doing. Because like I look back, and I'm like would I? I wonder about that. Like, would I jump in if this hadn't happened to me? Maybe I have no idea. But like, you know, when I look at it, when I look at people like you, I'm like, you know, it's encouraging. 

Christian:   13:56
Who are all these listeners? Everybody on this podcast listening and writing JJ putting in the time putting and the work, doing everything, thank you. I have to say thank you. It's remarkable. We're so appreciative of every single person out there.

JJ:   14:08
Can I ask another sort of awkward question and this is something that Christian and I have talked about before, and I'm wondering if you two can weigh in on it as well. How do you feel about the title of survivor of all three of you in this room, sort of being labeled as survivors?

Omar:   14:30
I mean, it's a great question. Like, what is that like to navigate when I talked to Jennifer Longden, You know who's a state legislator in Arizona, uh, who was put in a wheelchair because of hold up that went awry and paralyzed her. Her life, like I don't go through a single day without thinking about my mom, but it doesn't impact my way of life and like her, like she survived something right? Like she really survived something in a way that every day her life is fundamentally changed because of it. And there's not a moment that goes by that she's not reminded of that because physically. And and even for you, the lead that now has come up in this the way that you've survived the lead that's in your body, that is changing your, you know, physical health as well. She doesn't like the term survivor, and we have, like, a long conversation about that, and it completely flipped the way that I was thinking about it because you know that's fair. If I am using the term survivor the same way she is, it takes away from the way that her life is impacted every single day in a way that is different than how my life is impacted every day. Does that make sense? Like I'm a victim because my mom was taken from so like, it's almost like and we don't use victim because not a very empowering term. But I almost feel more like a victim than a survivor after talking to Jen about that.

Colin:   16:00
But you have to live life without your mom, right? You have to survive that event and find a way to live. You know, I totally understand the argument that Jen makes, I've heard multiple people make it. I've even seen gathering of survivors with it that have a variety of events that have happened to them and their family members right and there is tension because of the exact issue. I don't know what the answer is.

Christian:   16:33
Yeah, I don't think there is one.

Colin:   16:35
I don't think there is one. I try. I try to think about the big picture and the goal of trying to have every person in this country realize that this issue, this public health crisis, is impacting them through one way or the other. If that's the terminology, that helps them understand that and make it real, I think that's beneficial. That's terminology that also though, you know, causes trauma to someone who survived gun violence. And I think that's a problem, right? I don't know how...I think there are certainly gradations, right? It's not like it's not a binary yes or no, right. I think there's certainly there's levels there, but like, yeah, it's tough.

Omar:   17:23
Yeah because I don't want to take anything away from anybody else too right?  

Christian:   17:26
The same way that I don't want to take what that that term means to Jen, I don't want to take away from somebody who has had a loved one who's died from suicide or had a loved one killed that also feels that they have survived something and thinking about themselves as a survivor empowers them to make change. It's like I don't want to take something away from them either. This is just a complex.

Omar:   17:52
It's semantics. Some people take it extremely like seriously literal, rightfully so. And then other people are like, No, that's what you are. You're a survivor because your sister was killed and I'm like I don't know if I'm a survivor survivor. Like Colin to me, is a survivor, right?   

Christian:   18:13
My dad survived something and like it's like what Jen's is like: I survived something, right? My dad like the only reason he's alive today is because he was pulled into a hospital gurney and the doctor, before he even made it into the hospital room, jammed a tube in between his ribs to like let you know the blood out. You know, that was that was full. That was, like fully inside his lung. So, you know, I don't know for me to compare what I've been through vs. that is and then we should maybe that's what it comes down to we just can't compare.

Colin:   18:48
You can't but trying to utilize one piece of terminology to encompass everything does force a [inaudible] same level, right? I think there's problems with that. 

Omar:   19:02
I think you need to like almost brand the word survivor to include everybody in the most respectful sense of the word, knowing that within survivors there's different types of survivors. Like I know that sounds super complex.

Colin:   19:16
No, I think that's the right way.

JJ:   19:16
Like survivor little s, and survivor big s.

Omar:   19:22
They're surviving an event,  But there's different levels of that and different ways of being a survivor. I mean, um, it's like you don't want to disrespect anyone and like I feel terrible when, like somebody who's survived event says something like, that. It's like, Well, I don't think anyone is trying to take that away from you or like skew the definition in a way like you are absolutely a survivor in the true sense of the word, it's just that, like we haven't come up with, like, I don't know...

JJ:   19:53
We don't have good words for grief and suffering, period. And I think it's also like we only just now started having this conversation. So, like, of course, our vocabulary is super lacking because we don't....

Omar:   20:04
It's like if you could say, like shooting survivor are familial to me, like I don't know...

Colin:   20:10
There's some terminology. I think we should always use the broadest definition of the term survivor. I think it should be as all encompassing and wide encompassing as possible because, to your point right, everyone experiences and survives the tragedy and trauma in its own way. You know, I've always, you know, I feel in some way that sounds really jacked up, but like fortunate that the incident, the gun violence that I experienced was a high profile event in that as a result, I got a massive outpouring of support from the entire country, right. I got people writing me letters and sending me things that I had never met before. And I had everyone ask me about it and like, you know, there wasn't...it never had the thing of like I need to tell, you know, I want people to know about what happened. I look at so many other survivors and people have come to this work and who are begging for the opportunity to tell a story about their loved one, right? They don't get that chance, and then they have to fight for that. And I think that's so sad. I think that's so unfortunate, right? They should be able to talk about this. That should be just as intense in reality, as it was for them as it is for other people, right. And yet, you know, like, the average American experience with gun violence is not in mass shootings, right? Right now, mass shootings make up something like 2% of all shootings in the United States. Like that is not what most Americans experience. Yet.  

Omar:   21:39
It's like 99.9% of the media. 

Colin:   21:43
It dominates the media, it dominates the conversation it's what directs policy. 

JJ:   0:00
It dominates a lot of the research. 

Christian:   21:49
It's the only time that legislators feel any pressure at all to have to talk or deal with this issue. Unless they are already a part of it. And it's a shame, because every single day and it is I know it's something that you said a lot right afterwards. But every single day a Virginia Tech happens, right? If you're going to like, really size it up and that doesn't include the you know, we talked about 100 people if you're including suicides which we need to do. This is a daily event, right? 200, 300 people are also injured.

JJ:   22:24
Because when I say that like gun violence hasn't directly affect me, it hasn't. But once I started doing this podcast and you just start talking like things come up like I do remember like, one of my friends as a kid her dad passed away due to firearm suicide. My dad was a cop. And so you start, the more you start talking to people and you're like, Oh, shit wait. Like I do know people like in my intimate circle who this has happened to. This is a part of American culture. I've been in lock down drills for sure, both as a teacher and as a student. 

Omar:   23:03
Well, my mom's a teacher, and I have to say it's gotta be weird for her to do this. She came home from school that day because, you know, my sister was maybe shot, we didn't even know til we got down there. But she has to do those drills and I'm like, I wonder what that's like for her to be in that situation. And, like, well, I now have and you have too kids..

JJ:   0:00
Christian has a dog.   

Christian:   23:31
I get it guys I get it.  

Omar:   23:41
But the point is like I'm like, Hey, he's got to go to school one day, you know what I mean? And I'm like, Well, should I send him to private schools, public school should I do home school where I know he's gonna be safe? 

Christian:   23:54
We know statistically, though, that schools are one of the absolute safest places that you can send a child.  

Omar:   24:01
And I'm still concerned.  

Christian:   24:03
Well, because they can go anywhere, right?

JJ:   0:00
  Do we live in a bunker like Brendan Fraser?

Omar:   24:08
Frasier.

JJ:   24:13
Do we live in a bunker like his terrible nineties movie?

Christian:   24:17
That's literally a blast from the past.

JJ:   24:18
Yeah. Like, is that the only way that you can do like that that's scary.

Christian:   24:24
Well it is scary and to say that that like, the mentality that that's the solution and let's arm people like that's the disconnect I don't understand. And I remember seeing you two at Virginia Tech. This is right after somebody was on stage and literally named Colin, right? Like that's the thing is that, like these extremists and they are extremists they're not, they do not speak for the average responsible gun owner. This guy gets up and says that you know, Colin, because he was in this movie was dragging the names of the 32 victims of Virginia Tech through the mud like says that while Colin is 10 feet from the stage. And then comes off the stage and tries to, like, go calling Omar into a tit for tat debate like for a gotcha. And like Colin just and there's this video online, you can you can see it. But like Colin, at one point just says, Why is it that you refuse to think that there's the only solution is in the last step of the equation and that there aren't all of these steps leading up to that moment where the person who is coming to do harm, we can prevent that person from having a gun at the moment that he wants to harm himself or others.  Like and it was such a common sense, simple, positive things. And honestly, the guy balked, you know, and he did go, Whoa! I guess that's right, because Colin was also agreeing with him. And sorry, I'm talking for you. But it was a great interaction that I has stuck with me for a long time. And it's something that is like the mentality that we just need to prepare for the moment that these things happen, as opposed to doing everything humanly possible to make sure we never get to that moment. Is a mentality that I don't understand because they're so much more time with everything else. And if you get to that last moment, you're already too late.  

Omar:   26:24
That was like the big thing that I couldn't believe it. Why do we need to get to that point like, why can't we work on prevention? Like, What's the best thing? What's the best method, like anything else is too late. 

Christian:   26:45
There is a part of the same video where Omar's just like you don't know that, bro. You don't, you don't know that, bro.  

JJ:   26:52
Well, said Omar.,

Colin:   26:57
We have created a whole new vocabulary to talk about this issue that we had to find right that has taken and reframed everything away from how the NRA likes to keep everything black and white, yes or no, pro or con right? And actually brings us to that reasonable middle ground to have those conversations right about the specifics versus about these kind of broad, extreme end points. And I think that's something that I think has been massively helpful in having these awkward conversations not be so awkward and having more people realize that Oh, there's actually stuff we can do about this. And I actually want to be involved. In terms of like after shooting the term survivor in the kind of legal and government sense, right? I think there was a real problem with how, for example, the state of Virginia defined it in that there was a cluster of folks who lost, who had a loved one killed and then there was essentially the cluster of folks who were physically injured and having spent more than I think one day in the hospital was one bucket. Then those people who like visit a hospital, but not for very long the same day were discharged. There's another bucket and other people who never visited a hospital. So I mean, I know somebody in my French class right who was not physically injured and as a result, was not considered a survivor and was not given the same resources that we were all given to right. And had massive challenges trying to find a new way in school and get, you know, be quote normal again, right and move on in some ways. In fact, because he wasn't undergoing physical trauma, his memory of that 9.5 minutes was way more detail than any of ours, right? And as a result, he could remember these incredibly intense details that I could not, and he has to live with that, and I don't have to live with that because I don't have those memories. So I really found troubling how this state defined survivor in that regard, right? And I don't think so that's maybe why I'm biased to have that word being broad.

Christian:   29:00
Like when I've talked to Pat about this who was not shot but was there, I would consider her more of a survivor than myself. You know what I mean? All of these are added layers of like I like because, like of exactly what you're naming, like the things that she saw, smelled, was a part of, was there for. I was there afterwards. And like, not that I don't live with, like, mental scarring of my own, but like that, those events are just fundamentally different. So like, and she's so careful to be careful about what she identifies as, the words that she uses around it. And I would just push back on it and just say, like, you know, like like the things that you experience are so much more visceral than what I did. 

JJ:   29:57
Where do we draw the boundary though, because I know when we've talked about, like the doctors and the health care professionals that our and first responders we talk to like people who are the cops on scene or, you know, the first medical personnel. Or like the man who helped save your dad like that's a trauma too.

Christian:   30:19
And there's a lot of like there's a lot of like suicide that comes with the community afterwards. There's a lot of, um, people who can't go back to work afterwards, like, you know, like, there's like a lot of cops after Aurora that we're throwing like, you know, victims of that shooting in the back of the squad car caused there literally wasn't enough ambulances. 

Omar:   30:44
My family has been in touch with first responders from the Virginia Tech shooting and some of them are like, to this day, still extremely like affected by, and they reached out to like my parents about my sister for example. And one of them was a police officer, and he, like, came to us a few times like saying like, you know, sorry for your sister and this and that, like he was so like, taken aback by seeing her. And what, like I think what we found out at the end of day it wasn't her. It was like another victim that kind of looked like her. But he likes in his mind somehow connected that and thought it was my sister and, um was so affected by that he just needed to talk to my parents. There were other first responders that needed to talk to my parents like the first responders thing is really like they are affected by it just as much as anybody

Christian:   31:49
Don't don't get talked about the same way.

Colin:   31:54
If we believe there's a ripple effect of gun violence, if you're in that ripple, you're a survivor. You got impacted by that ripple.

Christian:   32:04
Right? And so when you say this is an opportunity for you guys to speak and things have changed a lot, and we have, like, a really long conversation. If there's one thing that you could say to listeners, to people listening in who are, um, catching up, learning more about the issue where we are today in the modern gun violence prevention movement. What would you want to leave them with? 

Omar:   32:25
I mean, I would say that we've come a very, very long way, but we have a very, very long way to go. I mean, it's like I thought we were, like, on the precipice of, like, victory, if you will, and changing things dramatically in this country. And we were like, just beginning. And now I'm looking at  it like, uh, maybe we are somewhere in the middle. And maybe we're near the end. I don't you don't really know. But what matters is people. People have to make something happen. And the only way that that's gonna happen is if everybody really like, stays on top of this and keeps voicing their opinion about it and letting people know like we need change because we're not even close to being done yet. And I know that like, yeah, you can, like, write a bill that encompasses all this and be done with it all. But that's just, you know that it's not the way it's gonna work. It's the small victories that matter. It's like, you know, every little yard matters every little inch matters, so, like you have to, like, kick and claw and scratch for every little bit and just, like, keep going and, like, put your whole heart into it. And, you know, remember that, um, you know, we are all at the end of the day in this together, whether you own guns, or don't own guns. Like we all need this to change for the better betterment of all of us.

Colin:   33:49
Well said.  

JJ:   33:50
And I guess then, well, thank you all very much. And in the, I'm glad you guys have fun. And in the immortal words of the great cinematic masterpiece High School Musical, we're all in this together.   

JJ:   34:08
Wednesday, police were dispatched to Bridgewater, Florida. After reports that a man in a pickup had brandished a gun while threatening an individual dressed as the Easter Bunny. Deputies located a camouflage painted dodge parked at the edge of the field and ordered the male occupants out of the vehicle at gunpoint. Both men reportedly refused to comply with the deputies' initial orders. A 22 caliber handgun was then found in the truck, as was an open 12 pack of beer. The Easter Bunny was unharmed, but hey, this is yet another reminder to not drink and handle firearms. To not carry unholstered firearms. And if you do, to not threatened magical creatures widely adored by children.  

JJ:   34:51
First, we have to talk about the 21st year anniversary of the Columbine shooting. 12 students and one teacher were killed, and an additional 21 people were injured with gunshots. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in United States history. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. School shootings have continued to plague our country, and now Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Heartland and Santa Fe have joins the ranks of Columbine. There have been thousands of school shootings that have destroyed the lives of far too many families and the innocence of our youth. Each school shooting leaves new victims and survivors and forces thousands across this country to live with their lives forever changed. In addition, everyday gun violence has continued as well. For example, in Cincinnati, a man was shot and killed in South Cumminsville on Wednesday as Cincinnati's police are forced to mark the city's worst stretch of gun violence in four years. To quote the police commissioner, "It's a tragic day that we're dealing with a pandemic situation, and we're also dealing with an inordinate amount of gun violence in the city. We're dealing with probably the worst 28 days of gun violence we've seen in the last four years." In Sebring Florida, a man threatened a mass shooting at a Publix on Facebook because not enough people were wearing masks while they were out shopping, highlighting the sad intersection that we're seeing of gun violence, coronavirus and fear. Additionally, an official at the U. S Department of Justice is warning of an increase in domestic violence due to the wave of recent gun buying spurred on by the coronavirus pandemic, which echoes concerns that advocates have raised for weeks. In the U.S. more than half of female victims of intimate partner homicide are killed with a gun. A July 2019 study found a higher rate of firearm ownership is associated with a higher rate of domestic violence homicide. If you or a friend or a loved one need help. We urge you to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1 800 799 SAFE. Finally to end with some good news, last week, 13 years after the horrific mass shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech, Governor Ralph Northam took historic action, signing several gun safety bills into law. This is the first anniversary of that shooting where Virginians are celebrating a significant movement forward in their long fought battle against gun violence in the Commonwealth. It was only last summer when, after the mass shooting in Virginia Beach, a special session called by Governor Northam was gaveled in and out in under an hour with no movement toward a safer Virginia. In response, Virginia voters cast their ballots in last November's midterm elections, sending gun violence prevention champions to take control of the Virginia House of Legislators and ultimately, results hang in this historic lifesaving legislation.  

JJ:   37:53
Looking for more Gun Violence Prevention Content? Try Audible. Audible is a leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the Internet. Audible content includes more than 250,000 audiobooks and spoken word audio projects. Free apps for every type of phone and device so you can listen to your books anytime, anywhere, right from your smartphone. Right now, I'm listening to Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun by Geoffrey Canada because it's great to re-listen to a book you love and one that I personally found so useful with understanding  gun violence while going on those isolation walks. Brady listeners can get a special 30 day trial and free audiobook by going to www.audible.com/bradyathome, that's slash bradyathome.  

JJ:   38:32
Thanks for listening. As always, Brady's life saving work in Congress, the courts and communities across the country is made possible thanks to you for more information on Brady or how to get involved in the fight against gun violence, please like and subscribe to the podcast, get in touch with us at Bradyunited.org or on social @Bradybuzz. Be brave and remember, take action, not sides.