Colin Goddard was shot four times during 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that left 32 people dead. He now works with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Appearing on Democracy Now!, Goddard says, "We just upped the ante for the worst mass shooting in our country's history, and now is not the time to talk about solutions? It is beyond time to talk about solutions," Goddard says. "This conversation should have happened before this shooting in the first place."
"This is when people are outraged. This is when people realize that this could happen to them. I mean, everyone goes to movies. Everybody tries to make opening night. And that's something that's relatable to so many Americans," Goddard says. "I think Americans are ready for this conversation. We do need to have this. We need to talk about what we can change... we don't want this to happen again to somebody else in the future. That's why we do this."
He says that the public outrage should be "focused directly to your representatives, because they are the ones, literally, with bills at their fingertips right now."
And Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York is one of those legislators poised to act. "We're trying to get people to sign on to support H.R. 308. We want people to call the White House, we want people to call the speaker of the House, to say this is commonsense legislation," McCarthy told Democracy Now! on Monday. "I think it's important that people have to start saying we need to get involved more. We can certainly outnumber so many of those NRA members that keep fighting us back. We have the numbers in this country, but we need to hear their voices."
To watch additional Democracy Now! coverage of the shooting, including an interview with a witness and a nurse advocating an end to gun violence, visit our news archive.
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