My mother died by suicide with a gun when I was 20 months old. For 36 years I didn't talk about it. When I finally did, everything changed.
When I decided to talk publicly about my mother Joyce, I had no plan for what would come next. I just knew the silence wasn't working.
Most people think of gun violence as mass shootings. But nearly 60% of gun deaths in America are suicides. That's the conversation I bring to stages, newsrooms, and legislative hearings. Not statistics. A story. My mother's story.
That voice led to two speeches at the Democratic National Convention, a personal essay in TIME Magazine, a Bloomberg Super Bowl campaign that reached over 100 million viewers, and a congressional campaign in Wisconsin's 5th District. It led to work with Everytown for Gun Safety, six years representing Wisconsin at the DNC, and serving as Board President of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.
None of this was planned. All of it came from the same place: refusing to stay quiet when staying quiet would be easier.
