Colorado police sergeant Dave Hoover writes in The Stranger

I’ve served in law enforcement for 31 years. I’ve been shot at, had people shoot themselves in front of me and been involved in numerous critical incidents. But none of these experiences could prepare me for my nephew A.J. to be murdered. I know the shock that so many people in Washington State have endured in recent weeks at the sudden loss of their loved ones.

Just after midnight on July 20th, 2012, my wife and I were woken up by my sister Theresa, who was screaming on the phone that she didn’t know where her son A.J. was. When I told her that he was at the movies, she told us to turn on the TV. That’s when I saw the reports from Aurora. We spent the next 18 hours waiting to hear what we already knew: A.J. was one of the twelve that had been murdered.

[…]

Our family has had good and bad times since that day, but we are well aware that our experience is like that of too many other families in America. We have honored A.J. by doing our part to prevent other families from having to experience this horror. That’s what brought my beautiful daughter Amanda and I to Washington this month to support Initiative 594.

In Colorado, we responded to the unacceptable reality of gun violence by requiring background checks on private sales. It’s the best thing we could have done to honor the lives of our loved ones. Washington has an incredible opportunity this year to prevent future acts of gun violence by passing Initiative 594’s common sense background checks.

Read the whole article here.