This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the L’Taken Seminar with the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism in Washington D.C. I attended multiple seminars on different social justice issues in our modern day world, such as reproductive rights, economic justice and poverty, and gun violence prevention. I had the opportunity to pick a topic, write a speech, and lobby my representative to Congress about the social justice action for which I was advocating. After careful consideration, I chose to lobby on gun violence prevention. Living 30 minutes away from the Borderline shooting and meeting someone from Parkland, Florida, made this issue feel so pressing to me, and I am determined to advocate for gun control laws. To state our case to Congresswoman Brownley, colleague Rachel Oplinger and I made a speech, which I modified and share with you here:
On September 6, 1949 Howard Unruh embarked on his “Walk of Death” through his neighborhood, killing 13 people in Camden, New Jersey. The United States experienced our first mass shooting, and no legislative action was taken. Sixty-three years later at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Connecticut, twenty-eight people were murdered, twenty-three of whom were children from ages six to seven. After this shootingt and after these beautiful young children had their lives stripped away before they even started, appropriate legislative action was still not taken. I was nine years old when the tragedy of the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. I remember being confused. How could anyone take away the children from many families in Connecticut right before the holidays? The following week we practiced lock down drills at my elementary school. We were shooed into closets and told to be as quiet as possible. As 4th graders in America, we were learning how to hide from an active shooter. I continued to express my worries about the topic to my parents, and we decided to put our saved holiday money to a good use. We donated it to an organization that was actively trying to improve gun violence prevention laws. The tragedies have now escalated to an epidemic in our country that’s getting worse every day. Gun violence is killing over 30,000 people in the U.S daily, eight of whom are under the age of twenty. We as American citizens should not be afraid of getting shot. However we as American teens have this burden on our childhood, and we’re talking to you today to express our hope that legislative action will be taken and The Bipartisan Background Checks Act will be passed.
I would like to share with you today the reality of what it is like to be a high school student in 2019. I know you are familiar with the idea of student safety, but let me share with you my experience, living 30 minutes away from the Borderline Shooting, and experiencing how high school students really are affected by killings like the one in Parkland. On November 8, 2018, the day after the Borderline shooting, I went to school, only knowing that a tragedy had happened the night before. I was waiting for responses from my friends at California Lutheran University, hoping they weren’t at the restaurant that night. I’d had a bad day at school, I’d gotten a bad test score, and I was just feeling down. I ran into my friend Chase in the music room, where I continued to complain about my day’s hardships. He responded simply with, “I bet my day was worse”. Not understanding the situation, I asked him, “Oh really?” as if I needed to one up him, as if my day were so much worse than his. He stopped walking, turned to me, and said, “My friend Cody was killed last night in the Borderline shooting.” I stopped short. I was completely at a loss for words. In the past year and a half, I have had to console countless friends for losing their houses in the Thomas fire, but this was an experience I had never confronted. As a 15 year old living in Ventura, California, I should not have to be afraid to go to the movies with my friends. I should not have to be afraid to go to a restaurant. I should NOT have to go to school and take time away from my learning so I can practice an active shooter drill. I want the legislators of this country to be horrified, that students between the ages of 6-18 need to participate in active shooter drills, because this fear of violence shapes the climate of our country. I should not have to console friends whose loved ones were just killed. To combat this issue, we, as the voice of this generation, need to make guns less readily available to anyone who wants one. The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 will expand background checks and fix loopholes, making guns harder to obtain for people in whose hands they should not be. As residents of Ventura County, where gun shows are held multiple times a year at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, this issue is especially personal, as we are directly affected by the possible effect of a gun being purchased without a background check, right in our own city. We are proud to be citizens of California, where restrictive gun laws are amongst the strictest in the country, but we urge you to support The Bipartisan Background Checks Act on behalf of students and young people across the country. We hope you encourage other legislators to support this act as well, so we as American kids can feel safe and know we are being protected by our government.
U’vacharta b’chayim, choose life, that you and your children will live (Book of Deuteronomy). As Reform Jews we look to Torah for wisdom and guidance on 21st century issues. Teachings like Btzelem Elohim (we are all created in the image of God), and “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor’s blood is shed” Leviticus 19:16 inspire us to speak out against gun violence, and the loss of life. The quality of our country is affected by gun violence, and like any piece of text, people can choose to interpret it in many different ways, but as Reform Jews, we understand it as a command from God to take action against this injustice.
We strongly urge Congresswoman Brownley to support the Bipartisan Background Checks Act so that every American, from students to adults, can feel safer in a country with more guns than people.
Thank you for your time.
