Colorado residents attending 2020 State of the Union include Columbine victim’s dad, in return appearance

Twenty years ago, Tom Mauser was sitting in a congressional gallery, two seats down from the first lady, and watching President Bill Clinton describe his son, Daniel, as “an amazing kid, a straight-A student, a good skier.” Daniel had, in the president’s words, been “gunned down at Columbine” the year before.

On Tuesday night, Tom Mauser will return to Congress for another State of the Union address as the guest of Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat who is 35 years old. It’s the same age Daniel Mauser would be if he were alive today.

“Here we are 20 years later, and we are basically in the same situation,” Mauser said Tuesday. “We can’t get something as basic as a universal background check bill passed. In Colorado, the year after Columbine, we closed the gun-show loophole because it was something that played a role in the Columbine shooting.”

“It seems to me that I can be the sort of messenger that says, ‘Remember Columbine? Remember the lessons that we learned from this? And yet, we can’t get something as basic as a universal background check bill even heard in the Senate?’ We have gotten nowhere,” Mauser added.

Neguse is frustrated that HR 8, requiring background checks for all gun sales, has stalled in the Senate after passing the House. He called the Senate a “legislative graveyard” and its refusal to hold hearings on HR 8 “a perversion of our democracy.” Mauser’s presence, he says, will hopefully remind the president that millions of Americans are awaiting action on gun prevention measures.

Presidents and members of Congress are allowed to bring guests to the State of the Union address, granting them an opportunity to honor a constituent or make a political point. Below are some other guests invited by Coloradans on Tuesday.