not let the world forget pam. her beauty, her grace, and her commitment to making our country and our world a safer place. in that same spirit, i have made the choice to give voice to not only pam's story and mine, but to the thousands of other people in our country whose lives have been lost and permanently changed due to the horror of gun violence. i am honored to stand here today with among other survivors like me who want to be sure that the decision-makers in our nation's capitol have faces, names and real people to think about when they consider senseless gun control legislation like the george zimmerman armed vigilante act. my now 5-year-old son and i call the state of maine home now. and i challenge and look forward to speaking with retiring

senator olympia snowe who has one last chance in her seat in the senate to make the right decision and stand behind sensible, honest, real conversations about the state of our country and the state of the abundance of firearms and loss of life that happens every day in our nation. i hope that they'll remember us, the other legislators, senator snowe, senator collins, and the other members of our congressional and senatorial delegations and join the legacy that pam leaves and that all of us hope to leave, that we americans can create a safer world for the rest of the members of our nation. thank you very much.

>> marry kay mace. >> my name is mary kay mace and my daughter, ryan, was the youngest of the five students slain in the rampage shooting at northern illinois university on valentine's day of 2008. ryan was only 19 when taken from my husband and me. she was our only child and the light of our lives. as more information became available about the shooter, i had problems understanding how someone with such an extensively documented history of mental illness was able to purchase firearms legally. i naively assumed that there were laws in place to prevent that sort of thing in the interest of public safety. through extensively researching gun control laws and nics, i came to find that the good laws we do have don't go far enough and that they're somewhat unenforceable given that the background check system is missing more than a million

records of people who are supposed to be prohibited purchasers. the public assumes that all crimes are committed by hardened criminals with illegally obtained firearms. and while that may be true in many cases, there are enough instances such as the massacres at virginia tech, niu and tucson where the gunmen were all mentally ill and all use legally purchased guns. i think that by now our legislators should be more alarmed that these incidents continue to happen anywhere and to anyone, prodding them to act on the problem. in reality, though, i go to websites for many candidates or incumbents running for re-election and see that most of them shy away from taking any position on the issue of common-sense gun control. click on their issues tab and it's not even listed. i'm here to tell you that gun violence can no longer be viewed as a nonissue in our country. >> who's going to take a stance against this? we want to see.

and that's the question that we're going to be asking. tom mauser. >> thank you. you know, i think there are three particular things that all of us or most of us here have in common. one, we never expected this would happen to us. two, we wondered how in the hell did that shooter get that gun? and three, we don't want this to happen to you. my name is tom mauser, father of daniel mauser, killed at columbine high school on april 20th, 1999. two weeks before that, he asked me at the dinner table, innocently, dad, did you know there were loopholes in the brady bill? then he was shot with a gun that was purchased at a gun show through one of those loopholes. that motivated me into action. i led the fight in colorado to close that gun show loophole.

when the legislature failed to close it, we took it to a vote of the people. we closed it with the vote of 70% to 30%. [ applause ] the people clearly, clearly spoke up. and now i'm speaking up again. on may 1st, i'll be releasing a book about my columbine experiences, and it's called "walking in daniel's shoes," named because during those days when i was advocating, as today, i wore these shoes. these are the shoes my son wore, he was wearing on april 20th, 1999. i do it to honor him just as these folks here are doing what they're doing to honor their children. there is no reason we should have to ask our leaders to pass

legislation that's common sense like closing the gun show loophole. when you can pass it with the vote of 70% conservative western state, we need our leaders to lead. we shouldn't have to go to the ballot each time. we're asking for the people here, our leaders, to listen to what the people are asking for. thank you. >> brian miller. >> hello, i'm brian miller. this is my niece, dale miller. she lost her father. i lost my brother in a massacre that occurred just on the other side of the hill here at the district building in november 1994 when a man came into washington, d.c., police headquarters, which is a place i

would say if you were intent on mayhem, you would avoid. but he walked in and went up to the second floor and opened a door and started firing. and when the firing was done, mike was dead. fbi special agent mike miller and two of his colleagues were dead as well. and since that day, our family has been involved as much as we can in trying to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to other people. mike was killed with a gun that was illegally sold in kentucky and then illegally trafficked to washington, d.c. this sort of thing happens every day in every state, in every city. and it's something that makes no sense. yet this congress protects the gun industry from top to bottom that allows that to happen. now, dale lives in maryland currently, and i live in new jersey. both states have strong gun laws. neither state allows people to

get guns and carry them loaded and concealed the way that george zimmerman did. why shouldn't the people of our states be able to make that choice rather than this congress trying to make the choice for them? it's unconscionable and it shouldn't happen. and we're here to do what we can to make sure it doesn't happen. but everybody in this country can help keep that from happening if you pay attention to where your legislator stands on this issue, research it. and when it comes time that there's an election, make your voices heard. and if they voted the wrong way on this, vote them out. thank you. >> just in terms of what the american public can do to hold their leaders accountable, they can go online to our site, bradycampaign.org, and sign our petition that demands that our elected leaders sign the

statement of principle, and they can look if their elected leaders do not sign a statement of principle saying that they don't feel that convicted felons should be able to buy a gun anywhere in our country, then vote them the heck out of office. annette nance holt. >> my name is annette naps holt. my life was forever changed on may 10th of 2007. you see, my son, an only child, blair holt, was murdered when he boarded a bus after leaving julian high school on chicago's south side. the bus was loaded to capacity with students and other riders. a teenager boarded the bus and started shooting. he was trying to shoot an opposing gang member, but he shot five innocent teenagers. my son was fatally wounded. the surviving teenagers are left with horrifying memories of being shot as well as lifelong physical and emotional issues. i am left without my beloved son

and a lifetime of missing wonderful memories. let me tell you a little bit about who blair was. he was a typical 16-year-old who loved his family, was very intelligent, handsome and gifted. he was a type of child that inspired his fellow classmates in grammar school and high school. his teachers loved him and wished they had more students like him. he wanted to be successful in life, and he made plans to succeed. his father and i did our best to instill in him values. we tried our best to protect him. but our best efforts could not shield him from the bullet that took his life on that bus. you see, blair was in the right place at the right time and doing all the right things. but along comes a teenager with an illegal gun sold on the streets of chicago. how could a teenager get his hands on such a dangerous weapon? there has to be a way to keep this from happening to other families. there are countless victims who have suffered the same fate because no one has figured out how to stop illegal guns in our communities. if only there were laws that

were in order, my son would be getting ready to graduate from college now. but i guess i will never get to see that. i would just hope that the legislators would look at all of us here today and understand, this can be you. i'm a firefighter whose dad is a police officer, and we could not protect our child from the streets of chicago. he was raised the right way. do something, make a difference. because it can be you, too. believe me. >> jeanette richardson. >> good afternoon. my name is jeanette richardson, and i'm here because my college student being shot to death right in front of my home that i still live at in an upper middle-class neighborhood in newport news, virginia, murdered on new year's eve by a high school dropout with an illegal

weapon. when we asked whether, you know, what he was going to get for the stolen weapons charge, we were quietly told that there would be no illegal weapons charge. because of the gun show loophole and because of the ease that we have of getting guns. any kid can get a gun, they say. the children tell me that, that i work with. i've just finished working as an americorps with at-risk middle schoolers, and that's what they tell me. he was a high school dropout. he was looking for another way to live. so i'm here because, you know, tech would have been the senior year my son would have graduated from college. he was at the ringling school of art and design as a freshman, just visiting home. and i think that was the first time in the whole time that he was gone where i was so glad he was not there to see that because we had so many friends and loved ones at tech.

and i am a virginian and i want this to end. we've got to get some legal -- some very serious regular laws. we're not taking guns from anybody who needs them or wants them. the people who don't deserve them, the felons, abusers, that's what we're here to do. that is all. thank you. >> geraldine rodriguez. >> my son's murderer was never charged. 15 years ago in tampa, florida, on december 19th, 1996, a few days before the christmas holidays, my 17-year-old unarmed

son, michael rodriguez, was murdered by a man carrying a concealed handgun. he committed a murder, but he was never charged. my son, michael, approached an unmarked car in a south tampa neighborhood and was shot by a domino's pizza delivery driver. his name was clifford jordan. he had a gun in his car which he purchased at a pawn shop in tampa. he had the gun in his car against the domino's policy. jordan was also behind the wheel of a running vehicle. he chose to shoot instead of driving off. my son was unarmed.

all he wanted was directions. clifford jordan fired and killed michael within five seconds after our son approached the car. my son, once again, was 17, unarmed, sober, and had no criminal record. it was the same kind of fear and hate-filled tragedy that we see in the trayvon martin murder in sanford, florida. if clifford jordan had not had a gun, my son could not have been killed. the so-called self-defense charge prevailed. 15 years after my 17-year-old

son's murder, i continue to fight this travesty of justice. the tampa police department accepted jordan's story even though testimony clearly revealed that jordan shot immediately and then placed his own gun in our dead son's hand to convince bystanders that our son was armed. in the police report, my son was described as a cuban thug from new york. my husband and i were born and raised in tampa, florida. but we live in new york city. we and our children travel to tampa regularly to visit our

relatives. michael was born and raised in princeton, new jersey. after our son's funeral, we visited karen cox of the florida state attorney's office to request a reopening of the investigation. we wanted the truth to come out for many reasons. the haste and rush in which a self-defense excuse had been accepted by the tampa police. the lies and inconsistencies in jordan's testimony, and new evidence that had been brought forth. karen cox flatly denied our plea. clifford jordan was never charged. even the domino pizza

corporation who claims to have regulations prohibiting its drivers from carrying firearms washed its hands of the killings saying they could not control the actions of their franchises. this seems to indicate to us that they do not enforce or take their own rules regarding firearms seriously. for 15 years, the pain of losing our son to a senseless murder has not been resolved. from the legal standpoint, we've done all we can to seek justice in this terrible tragedy. my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the family of trayvon martin. i respect their courage. like my son, michael, trayvon

martin was an innocent victim of ethnic profiling, the lax and dangerous florida mindset that fosters easy and available guns. and a law that has become a license to kill. to our administration and our legislators, i say, never again. >> omar samaha. >> thank you all for being here today. my sister, rema, was an 18-year-old freshman, straight-a student, double major, member of the contemporary dance ensemble, active in many clubs and college activities. like all of those killed on april 16th, she was so full of promise and had such a bright future. does she sound like she fits the

profile of someone who would be murdered by an illegal gun? the truth is, there is no standard profile. gun violence affects all americans from all walks of life. in fact, 32 americans are murdered every day with guns. over the past five years, i've been working to prevent gun violence. i've had the opportunity to travel across america from city to city, town to town, meeting with victims, survivors, law enforcement, mayors, legislators, doctors, sportsmen, even nra members about gun violence and our broken back ground check system in particular. in pennsylvania, i met a family whose 18-month-old son was killed while sitting in a car seat as his dad filled up the tank at a gas station. i spoke with a mother in chicago whose honors student didn't come home from school because he shielded a friend from a bullet on a city bus. i met americans from all walks of life, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts,

uncles, there is no one immune to gun violence in america. i think a girl from minneapolis who lost her childhood friend to gun violence said it best when she said, it's not about good kids. it's not about bad kids. it's not about race or class. this is a real problem. gun violence isn't an urban issue. it's a nationwide issue. after rema was killed, i went undercover with "20/20" to a gun show in richmond, virginia, to see just how easy it is to buy a gun without a background check. i bought ten guns in under an hour, no questions asked, no i.d. shown. it was as easy as going to a convenience store and buying a bag of chips or a candy bar. and we are allowing anyone to do that. felons, domestic abusers, those adjudicated mentally ill and even potential terrorists. i have seen overwhelming support from everyday citizens to enact reasonable measures and enforce

existing laws that will help prevent gun violence. to fix our national database and require background checks are simple steps, but they are steps that will help save lives. seven out of ten nra members, nearly eight out of ten gun owners and nearly nine out of ten americans support this. i'm doing this so that others will not have to go through the same pain, loss and suffering that my family and so many other families have experienced. 32 families go through what we have gone through and still go through every day. when i was in iowa city, i was able to meet an administrator who was there during the shootings in 1991 nearly 20 years ago. she shared a quote with me describing gun violence. and it was as if the tragedy had just occurred. she said, it's like dropping an enormous meteor into a lake. it creates waves that ripple for a long time and change the shape of the shore.

eventually, the surface of the waters smooth again, but underneath, everything is changed forever, and the people who were swamped by the waves are never the same. for the past five years, many of us affected on april 16th and gun violence across this country have worked tirelessly to prevent it from occurring to others. we have implored the help of congress only to be shut out and ignored as 32 more americans are murdered with guns every day, and mass shootings have become normal. i have been saddened and shocked to see an apathetic congress sit idly by even as gun violence struck one of their own in tucson. today we are calling on our congressional members to join us, a voice of moderation, asking for the enforcement of existing laws, laws that respect second amendment rights and help

keep us safe from gun violence. please join us now on the fifth anniversary of april 16th to help us put an end to the tragic toll that gun violence is causing our country. please sign this statement of principle. thank you. >> for the folks who haven't spoken yet, unfortunately i think we're going to need to keep it a little short just because we have some very important meetings to get to. but we do want everybody to be able to share their stories. kim segale. did i pronounce it right? >> no. >> i'm sorry. >> kim segale. and this is my son, patrick. and every day i wear this necklace. it has his fingerprint on it. on july 24, 2010, my 23-year-old son, patrick nunnely, was shot point blank in the left eye with a .22 caliber pistol. at 6:58 p.m. on the 24th,

patrick was declared brain dead. the person that murdered my son was a convicted child sex offender. who should never have had a gun. he had already shown that he had no regards for the laws that he had already violated his parole once and was sent back to prison. i have never been a proponent of guns. however, i've always respected people's rights to own a gun lawfully and after completing a handgun licensing course. prior to patrick's murder, i wasn't aware of the various ways a convicted felon could get a gun. now, unfortunately, i'm more knowledgeable and have a strong desire to close the loopholes so another mom doesn't have to bury her only son. a third of me died that day. july 24th, 2010. patrick. >> thank you, kim segale.

josh stepakoff. >> on august 10th, 1999, a neo-nazi armed with an automatic weapon in grenada hills, a suburb of los angeles. i was only a few feet away from him when he unleashed a barrage of 70 rounds, shooting me and four other people and terrorizing dozens of small children. i was only 6 years old. i got hit twice, one bullet breaking my leg, and the other narrowly missing my spine. many people remember the gripping images of that day of innocent preschoolers being walked across the street in grenada hills with armed s.w.a.t. officers. a short time later, the gunman who shot me traveled to california and shot a filipino american mailman. the gunman was a hate-filled white supremacist who was intent on killing jews. he had a history of mental illness and a violence -- and violent behavior. yet he had an arsenal of weapons

and ammunition in his possession, and he had weapons that were purchased without a background check. so many lives were altered that day because of our inadequate regulations. a comprehensive background check system could have prevented a dangerous person like him from obtaining lethal and dangerous weapons. almost 300 people are killed or injured by guns every single day. that's more than 1 million people in the ten-plus years since i got shot. nothing has been done about this issue. and i am here to call on our nation's leaders to help us move towards safer communities. thank you. >> thanks, josh. carolyn tuft. >> hi, my name is carolyn tuft. five years ago, my family's life was shattered. a teenager walked into a salt lake city gun shop and purchased a gun and walked out with the gun that he never should have owned.

he was too young to legally buy this gun, but the pawn shop sold it to him anyway. he used that gun to open fire on a crowded salt lake city mall. he shot me three times with the pistol grip shotgun and killed five people including my young vibrant 15-year-old daughter. it's been five years, but yet for me, every day is filled with the pain that lingers from that terrible moment. i suffer daily with chronic severe pain and sickness from the permanent lead poisoning. from the hundreds of lead pellets that has pelted my kidney, lung, spine and stomach. before i was shot, i was a cyclist. i rode 20 to 50 miles a day weather permitting. i rode bikes with my daughters as a healthy activity. we hiked, biked, climbed rocks and ran regularly.

i was a fantastic cook that cooked for all the tarms that congre congregated at our house. we were a very close family. physically active and were also out recreating and laughing together. now i struggle every day just to get out of bed. from the lead poisoning and sickness. i don't cook anymore because of the nausea. i think about my bike every day, but i rarely summon up enough energy to actually ride it. my kids have all moved away. from dealing with the confusion and heartache from what happened that day. kirsten was our glue. the baby of the family. whom everyone loved. not only just our family but everybody she met. she was sunshine, silliness and happiness. she had a laugh that enveloped you into laughing with her. there isn't a day that goes by that she isn't with me, i don't think about her constantly. she's missed so many milestones of