The best thing allies can do is listen. In listening, you give the chance to someone who has been personally affected to share their story [and] to get comfortable sharing their story…. You also send a signal to other people who may not know how to help that it’s OK to just be a listener. The very first step in being part of the gun-violence prevention movement is to hear people's stories and understand what’s going on around you.” “Almost 40,000 people die every year in this country from [gun-related injuries]. A majority of those are not school shootings. It’s important for us to keep that perspective and to amplify voices that are not often heard, those living in communities where gun violence is a day-in, day-out struggle but don’t get to be on the cover of magazines.... Our society has become immune to people of color being senselessly murdered. Too often, people shrug things off if the victims don’t look or sound like them.” “As a survivor of gun violence, my personal experience with trauma affects everything I do every day. It impacts the places I feel comfortable going. It’s always in the back of my mind. It impacts my sense of security, how I view other people, and the lens through which I see the news and the world. Gun violence has shaped who I am and who I will always be…. It’s important people who haven't personally experienced gun violence understand how painful it is to relive that experience over and over again. I say that not because we should shy away from encouraging victims’ families and survivors from sharing their stories, but because we should always be aware that they are giving a piece of themself when they do that.

My sister was the happiest person alive. She was the life of the party. She can light up the world with her smile. And you know, it’s very hard to think that she’s gone. It still doesn't feel real… I don’t want another family to go through what I am going through. I don’t want another 15-year-old to be having to pick out his sister’s casket. I don’t want that to happen. I want a 15-year-old to go to school, to be learning to have a normal life. I know that I will never have a normal life because my sister is gone.

It's actually, like, numbing… [y]ou don't even feel the pain no more. You know something might go on today. When people really ask me if I feel safe at home or at school, it's neither.