Gun Violence IS a Women’s Issue
On Saturday, I was slated to join the Women’s March #NRA2DOJ rally to speak on stage and share my story. Unfortunately, my travel was delayed and I ended up arriving at the Department of Justice too late. However, I did meet the incredible leaders from the Women’s March, connected with other gun violence prevention activists and found hope in the energy that morning. As a way to carry the energy and message from Saturday forward, I want to still share my story. Below is what I had hoped to share on Saturday.

Thank you, it is an honor to be here with you today and to stand alongside such an incredible group of inspiring, dedicated and determined women. Women have always been on the front lines of demanding and creating change in America — from child labor laws to the civil rights movement, to the recent fight for clean water in Flint Michigan. And we gather today to continue this fight for change. We will not stop until everyone in this country is free from fear and violence, and justice and equality are no longer a vision of the many, but a reality for all.
We come together this weekend to take a stand. We come together because the NRA leadership’s agenda is a direct threat to women and communities of color across this country. Their leadership has a history of racism, sexism, and misogyny — and their policies make it far too easy for domestic abusers to get their hands on guns.
I know the terrifying and deadly nexus between guns and domestic violence all too well. I was 19 when I met my ex-husband, and my relationship with him was built around trying to manage the pain and isolation I felt after my cousin, who was like a brother to me, was shot and killed. When the relationship became abusive, there were many times I thought he was going to kill me. He made it clear that he had a weapon, and that if I left him, he would use it. He always followed through on his word. If he said he was going to punch me in the face, he did it; so there was no doubt in my mind if he said he was going to kill me, he would.
When I finally got up the courage to leave him, I went into hiding with my son. We only went out if we had to, and we stayed under the radar for almost a year. Then he showed up at my mom’s house where we were staying, claiming to be looking for some papers. I had no idea he had gotten into the house. He came at me. He beat me, and I took it. Because I knew he could have shot me and killed me, killed my son, killed my sisters. He could have killed us all.
I know my situation could have turned out so much worse, and I am lucky to be alive and standing up here before you. But for so many women in this country, their story does not end the same way. About 4 and a half million American women alive today have been threatened with a gun by an intimate partner. That is astonishing, tragic and preventable.
As women, we must take a stand together to confront the gun lobby’s dangerous and extremist agenda that puts women and families at risk. Gun violence is a women’s issue. And while we stand in this fight against gun violence, we as women must fight to disarm hate that fuels this deadly violence — misogyny, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, religious intolerance and anti-immigrant views.
So let us rise up and say ENOUGH! We will not continue to stand by while more than 90 Americans are shot and killed and hundreds more are injured every day. We cannot sit silently and allow gun violence to continue to disproportionately affect communities of color, children and women — who are 16 times more likely to be shot and killed in America than in any other developed nation. We cannot look the other way when women are the vast majority of mass shooting victims, which more often than not involve domestic violence. It is our time to rise and stand together. And as women, we demand safety for our families and communities.
Together, we will harness the power of women who will raise their voices, and like those who came before us, we will pave the way for change, for justice, for equality — and for a future safe from gun violence.
