Tom Mauser, whose son, Daniel, was killed in the attack on Columbine High School, often wears his son’s shoes at gun-violence prevention events, including this 2009 event at the state Capitol. He wore them again Tuesday at a news conference encouraging GOP presidential candidates to take stronger stances toward addressing gun deaths. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)
One day before Republican presidential candidates , a group of advocates focused on gun-violence prevention gathered on campus Tuesday to criticize those candidates for not taking the issue seriously enough.
At a news conference held on CU’s Farrand Field, the activists — from organizations like Colorado Ceasefire, Safe Campus Colorado and ProgressNow — said GOP candidates should commit to supporting universal background checks for gun buyers and other policies that the groups believe will help quell gun violence. Advocates like Tom Mauser, whose son, Daniel, was among the 13 students and a teacher killed in the 1999 attack on Columbine High School, said the discussion among the GOP contenders has so far been framed mostly around whether proposed gun-control policies would take away gun owners’ Second Amendment rights.
“I don’t hear them talking about prevention,” Mauser said at the news conference. “I don’t hear them talking about the victims.”
While Mauser and others spoke, a 10-foot tall effigy of former Florida governor and GOP contender Jeb Bush — wearing a sign reading, “Stuff Happens” — loomed over their shoulders. Bush came in for extra criticism for about whether to tighten gun regulations following the massacre at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.
“Look, stuff happens,” Bush said. “There’s always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something, and it’s not always the right thing to do.”
“Stuff just doesn’t happen,” said Eileen McCarron, the president of Colorado Ceasefire.
Other speakers criticized laws allowing firearms on college campuses and for bulk amounts of ammunition to be sold online. Mauser said voters must make gun laws a greater priority at the ballot box if the nation is to reduce the number of firearms deaths in the United States, which stood at , alone.
“The status quo is killing us,” he said.
