Meredith Elizalde: Legislators must save our children from gun violence

The Democratic Party has traditionally been supportive of gun safety legislation. Therefore, it should be a safe assumption when you cast a vote for a state representative on the Democratic ticket, that you are also casting a vote for gun safety. However, Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria, consistently defies this, as the sole Democrat in the Pennsylvania House to vote with Republicans on this issue.

On Tuesday, Burns cast the deciding vote against banning accelerated trigger activators, also known as bump stocks and Glock switches. This device effectively gives a handgun the ability to fire at the rate of a machine gun. This is partially what allowed the mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival in 2017 to become the largest in U.S. history.

There is no need for an average civilian to have such a device. There is no place in civilized society for tools of mass murder.

My 14-year-old son, Nick Elizalde, was killed in a mass shooting at his high school football game in September 2022 in Philadelphia. My only child is gone. My life is misery. I’m about to face my second Mother’s Day as a childless mother. The pain is indescribable. And entirely preventable. Nick should’ve been safe at school. All kids deserve safety, and it is our responsibility to provide it.

I would’ve taken a bullet for Nick. I tried. When they placed Nick on my chest a moment after he was born, I remember thinking that I would do anything to keep him safe. I didn’t think: “I’ll do anything to protect the Second Amendment in your name.”

I don’t think anyone does.

So why are our representatives voting this way? Why does Burns, who claims to be a Democrat, get to decide the fate of all Pennsylvanians being subjected to what equates to machine-gun fire?

I testified in front of the Pensylvania House Judiciary Committee in March 2023. Two months later, Burns solely blocked legislation for which I testified, requiring gun owners to report lost and stolen guns. Burns is clearly not on the side of gun safety. Therefore, he should be honest with Pennsylvanians and register as a Republican.

But why is human life falling along party lines? It’s absurd. Gun violence survivors, and the victims we represent, aren’t interested in partisan arguments. We want to live in peace. But people like Burns and his Republican colleagues in the Pennsylvania House won’t allow it.

The Pennsylvania Senate is no better, with Pennsylvania Senate President Pro-tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, refusing to take a meeting with me. Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, won’t return my call. The only acknowledgment I received was a call from the Judiciary Committee, in which I was told, “The bills that you testified for wouldn’t have saved Nick anyway.” How dare any human being say this to a grieving mother?

Western Pennsylvania, join me in the fight to save our children. I can feel my body shutting down from tremendous grief as Mother’s Day approaches. Please help me call these legislators to account. It’s beyond time.