This was first published on my LinkedIn page, earlier in the day on May 24, 2022.

ACTIONS TO TAKE NOW: Donate to Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Brady Campaign & Center to Prevent Gun Violence, or March For Our Lives. I did. Call your Congresspeople and Sentators. TAKE ACTION!!!

Another day, another mass shooting. This time at an elementary school in Texas. At least nineteen children and two teachers are dead. It is the deadliest elementary school shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012. Children aged 11 or younger. We just had a mass shooting in Buffalo, NY. Why do we continue to allow this to happen?

I know this space is supposed to be for writing about work and leadership, but this is too big to ignore. Let’s make this about leadership. We need leaders to stand up and say “NO. No more.” We need people, of all races, of all political stripes, of all socio-economic classes to say, “NO! We will no longer allow this to happen. The money will no longer flow to politicians who oppose common sense gun laws.”

This should be a non-partisan issue. Why do we allow our leaders to shrug their shoulders, send their thoughts and prayers, and move on when things like this happen? First Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut and now Robb Elementary in Texas. This was their last day of school.

In 2019, I wrote an essay titled, “What Do I Say to Her?” after the first anniversary of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School school shooting in Florida. I updated it in December 2021 after a school shooting in Michigan. It’s about talking to my older daughter (who was eight years old at the time of the original writing) about school shootings, why they happen, and why our leaders don’t do anything to prevent another one. The points I made in that essay are just as salient, and as poignant, today as they were then.

We owe it to our children to be leaders, elect leaders, and cultivate leaders who will put lives above guns, and who summon the courage to do the right thing, even when it’s the hard thing.

https://katyferrywrites.com/2021/12/01/what-do-i-say-to-her/