It has been a year since my niece, 19-year-old Veronika Weiss, was shot and killed in Isla Vista, California, walking to her sorority house at 9:15 p.m. May 23, 2014.
She was finishing her freshman year at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was an excellent student, a fierce athletic competitor and the best kind of friend anyone could have. I miss Veronika every single day.
Veronika’s life was cut short because a dangerously mentally ill young man with access to a gun murdered her and five others and injured 14 more before killing himself. Just weeks before he went on this shooting rampage, his family asked the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s office to do a wellness check. In the shooter’s words, “If they had asked to look around, it would have been all over.” It should have been all over, but the sheriff’s office did not have the tools to “look around” or temporarily remove his guns despite the fact that he was a known danger to himself and others.
Now, in California, that has changed. Three months following this tragedy, California introduced and passed a law that allows family members and law enforcement to ask a judge to temporarily suspend a person’s access to firearms if they have documented evidence that a person poses a serious threat to themselves or others. Gov. Jerry Brown signed this legislation in September. I am proud of California for passing this law, but extremely disappointed that my own state of Washington, where I have lived my entire life and where my niece Veronika was born, passed up an opportunity to do the same.
Our state had the opportunity this year to save lives by passing House Bill 1857. I testified in support of this “red flag” bill, modeled after California’s law, as did members of my family, other survivors of gun violence, mental health care workers, and religious leaders. We felt the momentum building right up until Pat Sullivan, the Democratic representative from Covington, blocked a critical vote, killing HB 1857 in committee. (Editor’s note: HB 1857 was reintroduced for the current special session, but no further action has yet been taken.)
No law we pass will bring Veronika back. But I work to honor her memory by trying to save anyone else from going through the unimaginable pain that my family has gone through for these past twelve months and that we will continue to endure for the rest of our lives. I am asking our state legislators to please put families and safety over the interests and agenda of the extremist gun lobby. This is about public safety and doing what is right for families and communities in Washington state.
In the meantime, until HB 1857 is brought up again, I will continue to work for gun safety in all communities throughout our state. Lives can change in an instant. I have learned that the hardest way possible. We need to protect all Washingtonians. And, in the next legislative session, I hope we will.
Jane Weiss is a teacher-librarian in the Northshore School District. Following the death of her niece by gun violence, Weiss became an advocate for sensible gun laws. She is an Everytown for Gun Safety Survivor Fellow, working to support other gun violence survivors in building a movement for change.
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