Renee Hopkins: Safe storage is a practical step to reduce gun violence

My brother, Arnie, died at the hands of an individual in crisis who shouldn’t have had access to a gun. He was a student who brought a firearm into Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake and opened fire in a classroom. In minutes, Arnie was gone, along with teacher Leona Caires and student Manuel Vela Jr. Another student, Natalie Hintz, was also critically injured and more than a dozen students were held hostage. This shooting happened 30 years ago this week and the impact is still felt today.

I am often asked what it’s like to lose someone to gun violence. How do you begin to describe the endless nights wondering “what if,” “why,” “if only”? The honest answer is that it doesn’t end.

Gun violence shapes who gets to be at the dinner table. It changes every milestone in your life and rewrites the future in a way you never agreed to. Like my love for Arnie will never end, my grief will always be a part of who I am.

I have spent 30 years living with the grief of what happened to Arnie. I have also spent decades meeting families whose stories are different, but whose grief rhymes with mine. The throughline is always the same: A gun was present, and in that moment, it made tragedy an invited guest.

I understand the instinct to protect yourself and the people you love. I also know this to be true: When fear rises, the risk of preventable tragedy rises with it.

I am writing this to families across Washington because we’re living through a moment where fear feels close to the surface. It’s a palpable tension we’re feeling in our communities, and while many of us are trying to make sense of what’s happening, we must be clear about the role firearms play.

Locking up your firearm, storing it unloaded, and keeping ammunition secured separately is not an impossible feat. It’s not political nor a statement about your identity. It’s a practical step that reduces the chance a child finds a gun, a teen makes an impulsive decision, a person in crisis has immediate access, a domestic argument escalates, or a stolen gun ends up used in a crime.

Safe storage will not solve every facet of gun violence. No single step will. But safe storage is one of the clearest lines we can draw between risk and prevention.

This year with House Resolution 1152, Washington lawmakers have another opportunity to strengthen safe storage and create clearer expectations that match what responsible gun owners already practice. Policy matters because it sets a floor. It creates accountability and helps shape norms. But culture is what sets the ceiling.

We are living in a time where we are asked to harden ourselves to survive. I’m asking us to do something different. Slow down. Look around. Remember what matters.

My brother doesn’t get to grow older because someone who shouldn’t have had access to a firearm did. Please choose, right now, to be the person who prevents another family from joining this club of grief. We can be leaders in our communities, normalize safe storage and protect what cannot be replaced.

Renee Hopkins, of Seattle, is CEO of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.