STRICTLY PISSED OFF

Allen Berk

Jack Berman

Mike Merrill

Shirley Mooser

Deborah Fogel

Jody Sposato

David Sutcliffe

John Scully

On July 1, 1993, an asshole with guns came to my office building at 101 California Street and killed the eight innocent people listed above, wounding six others. I feel like a broken record sharing this story. I share it because those names above are important to me. They are and were even more important to their families. And I'm ashamed that my country, representatives, and fellow citizens have let the status quo stand. It enrages and depresses me that the loss of those eight people was just a ripple on the pond that eventually returned to smooth surface water, forgotten.

August 26, 2015. More than two decades later. What has changed? Seemingly nothing. A reporter and her cameraman were shot and killed this morning during a live television report in Virginia. Thousands in between. Tens of thousands is probably more accurate. Children. Teens. Church attendees. Movie-goers. People simply going about their daily lives. This doesn't even take into account those killed accidentally while cleaning, "playing with," or otherwise handling (mishandling) guns.

Here are just a few statistics from 2015 to date (from gunviolencearchive.org):

GUN VIOLENCE ARCHIVE 2015 TOLL OF GUN VIOLENCE 

Total Number of Incidents 33,127 

Number of Deaths 8,473 

Number of Injuries 17,282 

Number of Children (age 0-11) Killed/Injured 486 

Number of Teens (age 12-17) Killed/Injured 1,680 

Mass Shooting 219 

Officer Involved Shooting 2,871 

Home Invasion 1,467 

Defensive Use 778 

Accidental Shooting 1,222

THIS LINK is to a blog post written by my friend Chris Holm. I'm sharing it because he says it all much better than I can and I hope you'll go read it. Chris' post includes a link to a website where you can go to identify your state representatives. I will also include that below. As Chris does, I encourage you to write your representatives. Say what you have to say. Express your outrage. If you don't know what to say, Chris has shared the letter he wrote. Start with that and edit it to reflect your thoughts and fears and pissedoffness. Maybe it's not much, but it's SOMETHING. If we all do something, maybe we'll gain just a little bit of traction.

HERE is the website to identify your representatives and how to contact them. I hope you'll take a minute out of your day and do so. Who holds the power for change? Who are we going to let have the power for change (or lack thereof)? As Chris does, I dare you to be part of the change. For if we let this continue, if the names continue to add up, how long before one of those names belongs to someone you love (if it doesn't already)? What would you do to save someone you love?