Victim of Seattle JCC shooting speaks out after Sandy Hook
Published January 29, 2013
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (JTA) — Cheryl Stumbo, a victim of the 2006 Seattle Jewish Federation shootings, has begun advocating for stricter gun control following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn.
After years of mass-shootings, Stumbo has decided to begin using her personal experience to fight the American gun-lobby by telling her story, she told the Seattle Times in an interview published on Jan 27. She said she believes the more visible gun violence victims are, the quicker public opinion will shift.
“Victims of gun violence are walking around every day,” Stumbo, 50, told the Times. “You know someone, or they know someone who was shot, or had a gun held to their heads.”
Stumbo, who is not Jewish, said it took her six years of therapy to feel comfortable speaking publicly about the event, but after 20 elementary students and six school staffers were killed in the Newtown shootings, she decided it was time to speak.
“When Newtown happened, I had made the decision that I was going to do something about this,” Stumbo said. “I was going to use my personal perspective to help people understand.”
Stumbo, who worked as the marketing director for the Jewish federation, was also interviewed by local Seattle news channel King 5, an NBC affiliate.
The shooting at the Seattle Jewish Federation took place around 4 p.m. on Friday, July 28, 2006. Much of the staff had left to prepare for Shabbat, Stumbo said, when she stepped out of her office into the hallway and found herself staring down the barrel of a gun. The gunman, Naveed Afzal Haq, shot Stumbo in the rib cage with a hollow-point bullet.
The shooting resulted in beefed-up security at Jewish institutions around the United States.
In total, six women, including Stumbo, were shot and one, 58-year old Pam Waechter, died.
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