When news of the massacre at Umpqua Community College in Oregon came on Thursday it instantly took me back—as gun horror always does— to the morning of December 31, 2006 when a Chicago policewoman came to my door to tell me my son had been murdered the night before. He had been sitting in a restaurant in San Diego having dinner with his wife when a mentally disturbed man came in and put four bullets in his head. It’s always the same for me and for all the others who have lost loved ones to a gun. Our loved ones were just living their lives and suddenly, without warning, they are gone forever. No goodbyes, no last moments, no reminisces, no sharing--just a void that can never be filed. And, as always, my thoughts turn to the intractable nature of the gun violence epidemic we live with. How to solve it is not a mystery—anyone of us could sit down and write out the regulatory steps that would minimize gun violence to a fraction of what it is now. It will never get to zero but we can get very close as we see in developed countries that have enacted strong laws. But, when you deal with a gun lobby to whom any regulation means the government is taking their guns away you cannot make progress. No common ground can be reached, no compromise is possible. They cling to a “slippery slope” fantasy fear--pass one regulation and that is the start. They overlook the fact that if the government really wanted to take their guns away, it does not need to build on prior regulations, nor does it need to know where a single gun is. It would pass a law calling for all guns to be turned in in 30 days and whomever did not would be subject to a serious jail sentence and fine. Because the public space is no longer safe, halting the gun violence epidemic cannot wait. It must be done today. Rather than say “I can't do this myself" as you did after the Oregon massacre, Mr. President you must accept that you can do this by yourself. You have the power to declare a state of emergency and once you do, you can set the parameters for the gun ownership regulations that will exist during the state of emergency. And the state of emergency will not end until strong gun laws are passed. Mr. President you can do this on your own but you are not alone because we are with you every step of the way. To protect us and our loved ones, we need you to act now. Please do. Elliot Fineman CEO National Gun Victims Action Council