Thread by @jerrykogreen, Thanks to a conversation I read on Twitter yesterday between @LouisatheLast and [...]

Thanks to a conversation I read on Twitter yesterday between @LouisatheLast and @lyndsaydee_, I decided to do some research on the members of Congress who (before Wednesday’s siege on the Capitol), have been directly impacted by gun violence. (1/x)

Here's what I've found. First, a few rules: I’m not including instances of gun violence that occurred in combat situations, nor am I including instances in which the individual was affected by gun violence in a professional capacity... (2/x)

...(such as when Rep. David Joyce [R, OH-14] prosecuted a school shooting in Chardon, Ohio).
I’m also not including instances of gun-related policies, such as when Rep. Joe Wilson (R, SC-2) endorsed the fake Sacha Baron Cohen program “Kinderguardians”, in which... (3/x)

...children as young as 3 would be trained to use firearms to defend themselves in school shootings. Nor am I including the existence of Shooters Grill, in Rifle, CO, a restaurant owned by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R, CO-3), where patrons are encouraged to open carry firearms. (4/x)

And first, I’d like to separate out the instances in which the individual or someone close to them was the perpetrator of gun violence, as opposed to the victim. This group includes Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D, NJ-12), whose two sons committed armed robbery in 2001... (5/x)

...Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R, TN-4) whose first wife accused him of repeated instances of threatening behavior involving guns; and Rep. Ralph Norman (R, SC-5), who, while in conversation with representatives from the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense... (6/x)

...placed his loaded firearm, a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson, on the table between them for a short period.
Finally, I’d like to add a disclaimer that this research has been fairly surface-level, and that I only included instances in which I am sure that a gun was used. (7/x)

Rep. Grace Meng (D, NY-6), for instance, was mugged & assaulted in Nov. 2013, but reports do not indicate if the mugger had a firearm. Similarly, though Rep. Gwen Moore (D, WI-4) has spoken about her past experiences with gender-based violence, she has never stated that... (8/x)

...guns were involved. Given that I do research for a living, I hope that the level of investigation I’ve completed here presents a fairly clear picture. (9/x)

With all of those disclaimers out of the way, 22 United States Congresspeople (4 Senators and 18 House Representatives) experienced their SECOND brush with gun violence on Wednesday. Here are those stories. (10/x)

Ten of the members of the 117th Congress who experienced gun violence first did so together.

On June 14th, 2017, the day before the Congressional Baseball Game for charity, the Republican team gathered for one last practice. (11/x)

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R, SC-3) was leaving early from practice when a man approached him and asked “Excuse me, sir, who’s practicing today? Democrats or Republicans?” When Duncan replied “this is a Republican team,” the man thanked him and headed towards the field. (12/x)

Shortly after 7 AM, that man, James Hodgkinson, began firing on the team. Rep Roger Williams (R, TX-25) was injured when he dove into the dugout to flee the gunfire. Hodgkinson aimed at Rep. Trent Kelly (R, MS-1), but missed. Kelly alerted the others, yelling... (13/x)

...“Active shooter! Active shooter!”

Rep. Rodney Davis (R, IL-13) fled the field, first taking cover behind a car, and then into a nearby apartment building to call police. (14/x)

Rep. Jack Bergman (R, MI-1), a retired Marine, hit the ground and began to crawl to safety. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R, TN-3) joined others in the dugout.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was in the batting cage when the shooting began. (15/x)

Hiding behind a wall, Rep. Mo Brooks (R, AL-5) took off his belt & made a tourniquet for a congressional aide who had been shot in the leg. (Knowing how to stop the bleeding in an injured person, and more specifically, critical wounds from gunfire... (16/x)

...is the focus of the Stop The Bleed campaign: https://www.stopthebleed.org/ .) (17/x)

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R, OH-2) was on third base. “I felt like I was in Iraq,” Wenstrup, a combat veteran, later said. “But without my weapon.” Wenstrup saw that Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R, LA-1) had been hit by the gunfire. (18/x)

Rep. Scalise was crawling away from second base when the LEOs present shot & killed the gunman. Many of the members of Congress noted that the scene would have been much bloodier without the presence of the security detail... (19/x)

that accompanies Rep. Scalise for his protection. Scalise was badly hurt, but was able to make an eventual full recovery.

Several other members of Congress have been involved in or had close ties to mass shootings. (20/x)

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) called his cousin’s great-granddaughter, Rebecka Ann Carnes, a “beautiful spirit.” Carnes was one of the nine people killed on October 1st, 2015, when a fellow student at Umpqua Community College opened fire in a classroom. (21/x)

In 1978, after being pressured by constituents to investigate Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple in Guyana, Congressman Leo Ryan, accompanied by his 28-year-old legal advisor Jackie Speier, organized a fact-finding mission. (22/x)

As they left the cult’s compound in the early morning of November 18th, members of Jonestown shot at the delegation, killing Congressman Ryan. Jackie Speier (D, CA-14) was shot five times and lay for 22 hours on the airstrip they had planned to leave from. (23/x)

While she lay there bleeding, over 900 members of the cult were murdered or committed suicide. Now-Representative Speier still carries in her body 2 of the bullets. They were in her body on Wednesday, when she hid again. (24/x)

In 2011, now-Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) was an astronaut married to a United States Representative named Gabrielle Giffords, who was holding an event called “Congress on Your Corner” when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire. (25/x)

Six people, including a 9-year-old girl named Christina-Taylor Green and John Roll, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for Arizona, were killed. Gabe Zimmerman, Giffords’ longtime staffer and community outreach director, became the first... (26/x)

...Congressional staffer killed in the line of duty. Rep. Giffords, who had been the focus of Loughner’s obsession & the target of the shooting, was shot in the head. The process to save her life involved an induced coma, multiple surgeries, & a long period of recovery. (27/x)

The shooting in Tucson, AZ occurred on January 8th, 2011; the Capitol attack on January 6th, 2021 was two days shy of the ten-year anniversary. (28/x)

In addition to these events, nine members of Congress have lost close friends or family members to gun violence, or have been shot themselves. (29/x)

In 1967, when Rep. Kevin Brady (R, TX-8) was 12, his father, a lawyer named William, was shot & killed in a Rapid City, SD courtroom shooting spree. The murderer, Ray Bivins, also shot & killed his ex-wife & injured the judge who had just ordered Bivins to pay... (30/x)

...his ex-wife $3,000 in alimony.

On Nov. 27, 1978, as the city of San Francisco mourned the deaths of Congressman Leo Ryan & the cult members in Jonestown, former police officer & former Supervisor on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Dan White entered City Hall. (31/x)

White, who was angry that Mayor George Moscone had decided to replace White on the Board of Supervisors, shot and killed the Mayor in his office. He reloaded his gun and proceeded to the office that had once been his, where shot Supervisor Harvey Milk five times. (32/x)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) entered Milk’s office & bent down to feel for a pulse. Her fingers entered a bullet wound instead. Feinstein, who at the time was the President of the Board of Supervisors, remained composed as she... (33/x)

...announced the deaths of the Mayor of San Francisco and Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay icon in the city. (34/x)

In 1980, at the age of 16, Rep. James Langevin (D, RI-2) was working as a Boy Scout Explorer with the Warwick Police Department. A firearm was accidentally discharged, shooting Langevin & paralyzing him. 20 years later, his election in 2000... (35/x)

...made him the first quadriplegic to serve in Congress.

In 1983, Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (D, IL-4) was working as labor organizer Rudy Lozano’s campaign manager in the race for a seat on the Chicago City Council. (36/x)

Lozano lost the race by only 17 votes in February of that year, but rumors continued about the purging of voter rolls, more specifically of voters with Spanish surnames. When Lozano was shot and killed in his home in June of that year... (37/x)

...the courts convicted a “reputed gang member,” but his friends insisted that it was his political and labor activities that got him killed. (38/x)

In 1992, when Rep. Steven Horsford (D, NV-4) was 19, a gunman entered the North Las Vegas store where his father, Gary Shelton, was a cook. Shelton was shot & killed. Horsford would later say that his family’s experience with gun violence was “one of many,” and that... (39/x)

...he was “alarmed & frustrated by the lack of preventative action” against gun violence in this country.

On Dec. 15th, 1995, then-police officer Pete Stauber (R, MN-8) was shot and wounded when a bullet entered his squad car and hit him in the head. (40/x)

Stauber was off-duty at the time. Later in his career, while on duty, Stauber says a perpetrator “got the drop” on him, aimed a gun at him, and squeezed the trigger. “By the grace of God,” Stauber said, “the gun malfunctioned.” (41/x)

On July 23, 2003, James Davis, a member of the New York City Council & close friend & political ally of Hakeem Jeffries (D, NY-8) was shot & killed in City Hall by a political rival. Both Davis & the man who killed him had been able to bring guns into the building... (42/x)

...because elected officials & their guests were permitted to bypass the metal detectors at the door.

On Nov. 23, 2012, in the parking lot of of a Gate Petroleum gas station, 45-year-old Michael Dunn, angry at the volume of the music in a nearby car, pulled out a gun... (43/x)

...and fired at the SUV. As the teenage boys in the SUV attempted to flee the assault, Dunn got out of his car & followed, shooting the whole way. Jordan Davis, 17, the son of Rep. Lucy McBath (D, GA-6) was shot in the legs, lungs, and aorta. (44/x)

Dunn was convicted of murder in October 2014.

On November 18, 2016, Javon Wilson, the 15-year-old grandson of Rep. Danny K. Davis (D, IL-7) was shot and killed after two teens invaded Wilson’s home and argued with him. (45/x)

All in all, the number of members of Congress affected by gun violence is likely higher than my research shows. (46/x)

Knowing what we do about trauma, how it lives in one’s brain and how re-traumatization can affect the body and mind, I am thinking particularly of those people who have had to experience the horror of gun violence more than once. (47/x)

If you happen to know of another story in which a member of the 117th Congress experienced gun violence, feel free to add it to this thread. (48/48)

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