Fight for gun-safety legislation must go on

US lawmaker John Morse explains how he lost his job fighting for gun control — and why he’d do it again.

I WAS elected president of the Colorado state Senate in Nov 2012, four months after a deadly shooting in Aurora, Colorado, in which a man carrying a 100-round drum magazine murdered 12 and wounded 58. The following month, the nation was mortified once again when a gunman stole weapons from his mother, fatally shot her, and went to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where he murdered 20 children and six adults.

When I banged the gavel on the first day of our legislative session in Jan 2013, I swore we would take action to prevent further devastation. We did — and last week, in a recall effort led by opponents of gun control, I lost my job for it. But I have no regrets: I simply cannot accept the notion that it would have been acceptable for Colorado to do nothing to stem the tide of mass violence. And as I watch the nation once again cope with the aftermath of a mass murder — this time at Washington, DC’s Navy yard — I am more persuaded the fight for gun-safety legislation must continue.