Fighting the Good Fight
"The urgency of this work becomes increasingly personal"
By: Rev. Sharon Risher
It’s been almost eight years that I’ve been an activist for common sense gun laws. It was crazy how – after the murders of my mother, cousins, and others in the Emanuel AME Church, Charleston, SC, on June 17, 2015 – I would become so embroiled in the gun violence prevention movement.
March 27, 2023, while I’m at my computer working on this piece, breaking news pops up on the television. As soon as I hear and see that headline, my heart starts racing and I find myself breathing hard because my gut says, “Oh no, what has happened now?” Another school shooting in Nashville, TN, at a Christian school.
My heart starts to race because I intuitively know something bad has happened. Three dead children, three staff members from the school, plus the shooter. The more we – activists, volunteers, clergy, and everyday people who’ve suffered because of gun violence – advocate, it seems the numbers of deaths increase more and more. The more we tell our stories, vote, phone bank, letter write, petition, or make financial donations, sometimes we feel hopeless, like all our efforts do not seem to have influence. Yet, we know they have.
In June of 2022, I was invited to the White House with many other activists to celebrate President Biden signing one of the most sweeping gun reform bills in decades.
I felt so much pride because so many of us had given countless hours advocating for common sense gun laws.
But boy, this work can get you down. The more mass shootings have increased, the more you are triggered and sent right back into a space of chaos, confusion, and grief. You just cannot get away from it.
Yesterday, April 10, 2023, in Louisville, KY, a 25-year old white male armed with an AR-15 killed five people and seriously injured others, including a young police officer.
As a murder victim family member, the trauma of my mother’s death, thrusts me back to that night every time a mass shooting occurs.
My soul suffers a blow, and sadness sets in for days. I must admit, I get sick and tired of being sick and tired. At times it feels like all the work I do is for naught.
Yet, these feelings do not last a long time because I do know gun laws have changed. I know that grassroots organizations – like Moms Demand Action, Everytown, and all the other organizations and people like me – have shown up repeatedly, at the White House, State Houses, and elsewhere, to give voice to why our gun laws must change.
As an African American mother and now a grandmother of a Black son and 2 Black grand boys, the urgency of this work becomes increasingly personal. I realize my loved ones can be gunned down in the blink of an eye. My heart aches for all the Black mothers who have had to bury their children. I have listened, collaborated with, and cried with so many of my follow activist who no longer have their children on this earth, Mothers, whose lives have been devastated and dreams destroyed.
Yet they and others like me will not stop doing everything we can to make common sense gun laws a priority in this country. We will not stop fighting, because stopping would be a loss of hope, and hope is all we have left. We will continue to fight the good fight.
Rev. Sharon Risher is a speaker, author, and volunteer spokesperson for Everytown for Gun Safety and Death Penalty Action. Her book, For Such a Time As This: Hope and Forgiveness After the Charleston Massacre, was published in 2019. She lives in Charlotte, NC.
Image of Emanuel AME Church courtesy of National Park Service; image of Rev. Risher via Sharon Risher Speaks