Fil-Am shooting survivor fights for tougher gun laws
Photo from Robert Schentrup/Facebook
Surviving a tragic school shooting, Filipino-American Robert Schentrup advocates for a cause, even with battle scars on.
The US Supreme Court is back on this agenda as it’s now on a new term. A decision on whether individuals accused of domestic violence can still have a firearm was scheduled to be weighed by the Conservative majority court.
One of the advocates seeking stronger safety measures is Fil-Am Robert Schentrup. Being a shooting survivor himself, he was the co-founder of Team Enough, a youth-led gun violence prevention organization.
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That’s not all; he’s also been a part of Brady: United Against Gun Violence and a former fellow at Rise, a multi-sector coalition of sexual assault survivors committed to empowering all survivors.
Schentrup started taking up the cause of Team Enough in 2018 after surviving the tragic Parkland school shooting in Florida. Unfortunately, his 16-year-old sister Carmen was one of the 17 people who died at the hands of a lone gunman on that tragic day.
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Back then, he shared in an interview that he wouldn’t be watching or following his sister’s trial. And even though his sister was killed that day, he still wanted for the gunman to live, as he shared with Washington Post.
Fast forward to now, here’s his insight on the gun law update, “There’s a possibility here for the Supreme Court’s decision saying that removing guns from domestic abusers is unconstitutional, and that is something that we don’t want to happen,” he said.
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Advocates supporting change
Schentrup and his fellow advocates are all for change. They’ve welcomed US President Biden’s decision to establish the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
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They believe it’s an action that could potentially bring the much-needed coordination and solutions to the table.
“It’s really important throughout the entire government that there’s a place that could coordinate the efforts,” he said, “to really make sure that we have the solutions that we need, implemented in a way that would be most effective.”
Meanwhile, another Fil-Am anti-gun violence advocate, Representative Justin Jones of Tennessee, is also at the White House during the announcement of the recent gun law update.
🚨Tennessee’s House Republicans on Monday again silenced Representative Justin Jones, a Black Democrat who was expelled earlier this year in a gun control protest, after he was deemed to have violated new stringent rules of decorum. @nytimes.https://t.co/lcYmWQXyYT
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) August 29, 2023
“Just like FEMA response to natural emergencies like hurricanes, tornadoes, this office is an emergency response to the crisis of gun violence that we are facing as a nation,” Rep. Jones said.
The shocking statistics call for stricter gun laws. Just this year alone, the Gun Violence Archive has recorded a staggering 532 mass shootings in the US, as of October. So far, over 1,300 teens and kids have been victims to gun violence in 2023.
If nobody acts, then who would?
