Secrets of the West Wing

Chapter 4 - A Shot in the Heart

Warnings: Very heavy chapter; cursing; violence; school shooting; gun violence

April 2025

Devastation.  Chaos.  Heartbreak.  Thirty-eight families in Boulder, Colorado have been irreversibly altered.  And dozens more await additional news; the fate of their loved one in the hands of doctors as they undergo surgery.  I travelled to the University of Colorado to express my sincere apologies and to grieve with the families who lost children to America's most recent and fatal school shooting to date.  My heart was so heavy today.  I had failed the American People yet again.  The Senate stalled on my gun reform bill, not that it would have even helped these young adults now.  I was sick to my stomach.  It felt so performative to go and deliver a speech in the wake of such catastrophe.  My words meant nothing to these families.

I had never been more nervous to deliver a speech.  Gun violence was a huge part of my campaign, and four months into my presidency, America had set yet another record for school shootings.  Though I had spoken extensively on gun violence and possible reform, it was far more surreal today.  Since graduating from CU Law, I figured I'd return for alumni events, or maybe (once I'd been elected President) to even deliver a commencement address.  Never once did I dream I'd be here in the wake of such tragedy.

Penelope handed me a microphone.  I swallowed thickly, stuffing the emotion down.  "Good morning.  I wish I could have met you all under different circumstances.  I am incredibly saddened that thirty-eight young ones died at the hands of their peers.  And I would like to first take a moment of silence to remember them and honor them."  I counted to thirty-eight in my head.  One second for each life lost.  One second felt so inconsequential compared to the devastation surrounding us.  I willed myself not to lose it.  The press would crucify me, a woman, for publicly crying; JJ, my communications director, would be even worse.

I cleared my throat and continued, "To the parents, families, and friends who lost loved-ones today, I want you to know that this is not a political platform for me.  Your pain is my pain; your grief, my grief.  For those who don't know, I went to CU for law school.  And though the Boulder community is tough, this is an unspeakable tragedy.  It is unimaginable to bury your loved one, leaving a very piece of your soul in the Earth there with them.  And nothing I say up here can change that.  I'm sincerely sorry that their lives were taken far too soon."  A tear slipped down my face.  Sorry JJ.

"It is unfair to ask you to fight against the injustices perpetrated against your children.  And I will not ask you to.  I'm asking you to allow me to take on that fight for you.  Let me be their warrior.   America is a global embarrassment.  Gun violence in this nation is not taken seriously.  Decades of mass shootings is a stain on our nation's character.  We need to do better.

"At this very moment, the Senate is going to allow a gun control bill to stall so they can go on recess next week.  Enough is enough.  I urge you, Senators, to take action and push this bill through.  Have it on my desk next week, waiting to be signed into law, so that we can enact real gun reform in this nation, to effect real change.  How many Americans must die?  How many Americans must die before the Republicans agree that enough is enough?

"The perpetrators of yesterday's tragedy perverted the Second Amendment right to bear arms.   They did not have a Constitutional right to possess and use automatic machine guns, military guns.  No civilian needs a weapon like that.  These weapons, especially in the hands of those who need mental help, come with steep prices.  And your loved ones paid it with their lives.  It is tormenting.  And it is unfathomably unjust.  Your loved ones had a right to be safe at school, to be free from this terror.  And it was so brutally ripped from them.