Congressman Joe Neguse to Bring Tom Mauser, Father of Columbine Victim Daniel Mauser, to the 2020 State of the Union
Washington D.C.— Congressman Joe Neguse announced today that Tom Mauser will join him as his guest at the State of the Union in Washington, DC, on February 4th to highlight the urgent need for action on the gun violence epidemic. Tom Mauser lost his son Daniel Mauser in the Columbine shooting in 1999 and has since become a vocal and prominent advocate for gun violence prevention legislation, wearing his son’s shoes throughout Colorado advocating to close the background check loophole that contributed to Daniel’s death.
Congressman Joe Neguse, who represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District in Congress, grew up in the shadows of the Columbine shooting over 20 years ago. At the time of the massacre he was a freshman in high school living in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, less than 10 miles away from Columbine. Neguse, at 35, is the age Daniel Mauser would be if still alive today, and represents the first generation of members of Congress who came of age in a time of school shootings. Since taking office, Congressman Joe Neguse has helped lead efforts through his role on the House Judiciary Committee to pass bipartisan universal background checks out of the U.S. House of Representatives and pass additional gun violence prevention measures out of the Judiciary Committee, including a red flag law and high-capacity magazine ban.
“Coloradans have experienced the tragedy and grief of gun violence far too many times. Across the nation, we have an American gun violence epidemic on our hands that needs to be addressed,” said Congressman Joe Neguse. “I implore President Trump to consider the lives lost and the toil that mass shootings are having on Coloradans and on our nation as he addresses the State of our Union next week. Anything less does a disservice to the grief being lived out by Tom and individuals across our nation. I hope Tom Mauser’s attendance at the State of the Union on Tuesday will be a reminder that Colorado has been waiting for over 20 years for federal action on gun violence, and they cannot wait any longer.”
“I’ll be there, wearing my son’s shoes, to keep alive the hope that the nation will finally do the right thing, addressing this epidemic of gun violence,” said Tom Mauser. “It’s been over twenty years since my son and 12 others were shot down at Columbine, and what have our leaders in Washington done? It’s outrageous that we haven’t even addressed the most basic of solutions—closing loopholes in our background check system—loopholes my son Daniel pointed out to me two weeks before he was killed.”
In February, Congressman Neguse shared Tom Mauser’s story at a House Judiciary Committee hearing for universal background checks. Watch his remarks here. In 2019, Congressman Neguse successfully advocated for robust funding for states to improve their criminal and mental health records as part of the National Instant Background Check System (NICS), funding that was included in the FY2020 funding package and he recently advocated for the Department of Justice to run an audit on the Point of Contact background check system, a system that could have enabled Sol Pais to wrongly pass a background check when she arrived in Colorado in April.
Media requests for Tom Mauser around his State of the Union appearance can be directed to Sally Tucker at Sally.Tucker@mail.house.gov