Survivorship and Where We Go From Here
Sandy and Lonnie Phillips and their organization, Survivors Empowered, were recently named as one of CNN’s 2023 Champions for Change
By Sandy and Lonnie Phillips; introduction by Penny Okamoto
Introduction
On the night of July 20, 2012, a shooter armed with 4,000 rounds of ammunition, an assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, a Glock 22 handgun, and two tear gas grenades shot seventy people in a matter of seconds, leaving 12 dead, including 24 year old Jessi Redfield Ghawi.
In the years that followed Jessi’s death, her parents, Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, founded Survivors Empowered and became nationally recognized advocates for survivors of gun violence and outspoken critics of firearm laws in the United States.
Sandy, Lonnie, and Survivors Empowered were recently named by Anderson Cooper as one of CNN’s 2023 Champions for Change. Their survivorship story is a story of impossible grief, a deep determination to help other survivors, and an unrelenting passion to hold accountable arms dealers and the politicians who enable them.
The fatal shooting of Jessi Redfield Ghawi
The gunshots that tore through our daughter’s body tore through the lives of so many people and in so many ways. Our family. Our son. Jessi’s friends and coworkers. The 12 people who were fatally wounded. The 58 who were injured by gunfire. The 12 others were injured from tear gas or as they fled the bullets.
Our survivorship
In the aftermath of the most horrific event a parent can imagine, we struggled. We looked for help. We needed a roadmap, but found none. After Jessi was brutally shot, we attempted to sue the arms dealer who sold 4,000 rounds of ammunition to the killer without even requiring a background check.
Due to Colorado’s arms dealer immunity laws, we not only lost the case but were ordered by a judge to pay $203,000 to the arms dealer whose bullets killed our daughter. The judgment bankrupted us.
Not long after that, we founded Survivors Empowered and dedicated ourselves to helping gun violence survivors navigate the immediate aftermath and cope with the longer-term trauma.
Over the past decade, we have traveled to 21 mass shootings — from Sandy Hook to Uvalde — to offer support, help, and training for survivors. Working with Giffords, we co-authored The Survivors Toolkit and provided survivor training. We help connect survivors to trauma therapy resources and Mindfulness Courses ,and we will begin to offer survivor retreats in 2024.
Survivorship Takes Many Forms
For many survivors, just getting out of bed takes the strength of a champion. Surviving each day listening to the relentless tick-tick-tick of a clock as searing emotional pain overtakes all other thoughts is a major accomplishment. Sometimes, breathing is all that survivors can do to move forward; the strength to do so is herculean.
Very slowly, grieving turns into transforming the hard lessons of the tragedy into constructive action to better the world.
For many parents, raising children with love and honesty without the aid of their gunned-down partner can often become a catalyst to transforming tragedy into empowerment.
These championship-caliber contributions too often get lost amid survivor guilt over not getting involved right away in the gun violence prevention movement. They equate making a big splash in their communities and the country-at-large with the definition of a champion.
CNN 2023 Champion for Change
Recently, our work was recognized by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and when he chose us and Survivors Empowered to be his 2023 CNN Champion for Change. We are so grateful for the acknowledgement, and are thrilled to have the opportunity to talk about what survivorship is and what it means to be a champion.
Ways to help
For those ultimately deciding to speak out to help gun violence survivors, options abound.
In addition to those affected by the more widely publicized mass events, survivors include families and friends of gun suicide victims, casualties of individual shootings, and domestic abuse victims. The following are ways to help that have proven the most impactful:
Provide support and referrals for services to survivors of violence, and connect survivors to a support network of others nearby.
Educate survivors about how to tell their stories in a compelling way to speak to the issue of violence in their communities.
Facilitate ability of wounded gun violence survivors to archive their stories for research purposes.
Make available a Rapid Response Team made up of veteran survivors of violence who have walked the brutal walk of survivorship. After a mass casualty event, local governments and law enforcement are overwhelmed. Victims are in total shock or fighting for their lives. No one understands what these survivors need better than those of us who have gone through it.
Advocate for and educate about meaningful gun control, industry by industry. For example, the hospitality industry can help by promoting safe and secure gun management, either by securing arms in a hotel safe or with trigger locks. Companies could provide valuable education about suicide prevention, domestic violence, and human trafficking — all sadly woven inextricably into gun violence. Other relevant industry measures include: helping hospitals find the most effective way to prevent civilian firearms from being brought into medical facilities; creating a new media standard that will reduce the glamorized portrayal of firearms in the entertainment industry; and call for fees that will fund survivors’ needs.
Empowered gun violence survivor champions come in many sizes, shapes, and forms. Most important is for survivors to find a path that enables positive and productive contributions at any level — starting with themselves and their families and friends.
Where we go from here
Suicide Prevention: In the United States, about 60% of all fatal shootings are suicides. We know that suicide is preventable. One of the most effective ways to stop suicide is to remove access to firearms. Many states have some form of extreme risk protection orders (ERPO) that allows family or law enforcement to temporarily remove a firearm from a person threatening harm to self or others.
The Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) is woefully underfunded and is facing a 40% cut in funding for services for victims of all forms of crime. We do not know how Congress will move forward to ensure that victims and survivors receive the help they need. Contact you Congress member to tell them to support the funding.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (2005) provides immunity against lawsuits for arms dealers. No other industry has been given this protection from lawmakers. Along with Colorado Ceasefire and other gun violence prevention groups, we worked to repeal Colorado’s arms dealer immunity law — the one that bankrupted us — with a law named “Jessi’s Law” in honor of our daughter.
We are alarmed by the international flow of firearms from the United States, especially semi-automatic assault weapons, and a lack of transparency in their export. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to keep certain semi-automatic firearms, their ammunition, and accessories under State Department control, but has not taken action as President to return them to the United States Munitions List. We are grateful to our friends at Forum on the Arms Trade for their work on this matter.
Finally, please remember what Jessi wrote just seven weeks before she was fatally shot:
“I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift.”
Sandy and Lonnie Phillips first turned their grief into action by founding the non-profit, Jessi’s Message, which has evolved into Survivors Empowered — a national organization created by survivors, for survivors, empowering survivors. Recently, Sandy and Lonnie, working with Giffords, published a Survivors Toolkit. The Phillipses are now laying plans for a survivors retreat in Mexico where survivors of gun violence can learn to manage their symptoms of PTSD and reduce stress.
Penny Okamoto is Executive Director at Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation and Survivors Empowered.
Top image provided by Sandy and Lonnie Phillips.
The Philips' fight to take down the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act via their advocacy of "Jessi's Law" is most compelling. My first response was to ascertain how my state, Indiana, stands on the issue, and the answer seems to be that it is immune from lawsuits as the Philips' Colorado. Then I rememberd that the Biden comments describing the gun industry's special immunity from lawsuits as "outrageous" attracted a lot of pushback and was deemed by critics to be an inaccurate characterization: after all, the Sandy Hook families who sued Remington Arms Company settled for what sounded like a large sum. In short, I realize I am confused about the law(s) -- state and federal -- on this vital aspect in the national debate on guns.