People_USA_April_24_2017

Purpose

After Pain

“Much of gun

violence is

preventable,”

says Lori Haas

(top, in D.C.).

(Inset) With

daughter Emily.

HER DAUGHTER WAS WOUNDED IN THE 2007 VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING THAT LEFT 32 DEAD.

NOW LORI HAAS FIGHTS TO PREVENT THE NEXT SCHOOL MASSACREB K C BAKER

SERIES FINDINGSOLUTIONSTOGUN VIOLENCE

Lori Haas remembers being proud of how

well her oldest child, Emily, was settling

into college life. The 19-year-old sopho-

more at Virginia Tech had joined a soror-

ity and was excelling in French, and Lori

didn’t worry as much about her living

away from home. But that changed on

April 16, 2007, when a gunman armed

with two semiautomatic weapons and

hundreds of rounds of ammunition opened fire on

campus, killing 32 and wounding 17. Emily, who

was in Norris Hall, where most of the victims were

killed, was wounded when two bullets grazed her

head. While struggling to help her daughter heal,

Lori was struck by the overwhelming loss that dark-

ened the once-peaceful campus. “I saw more pain

than can be imagined,” says Lori. “It was morally

imperative that I do something about it.”

Now she is. As the leader of Virginia’s Coalition

to Stop Gun Violence, Lori has dedicated herself to

preventing more senseless shootings. Starting out

as a volunteer and in 2009 becoming the

nonprofit’s director, she has worked with

other advocates to fight state laws that

would have permitted guns in churches

and daycare centers and on college cam-

puses. In 2016, two years after Gov. Ter-

ry McAuliffe appointed her to the state

Crime Commission, Lori helped halt a

bill that would have allowed citizens to

carry concealed firearms without a permit.

Meanwhile, Emily, who returned to Virginia Tech

after the shooting and earned a degree in French, is

now a married high school French teacher with a

baby daughter of her own. With the 10th anniver-

sary bringing back memories of the day Emily saw

her classmates and their beloved professor struck

down by gunfire, Lori vows to keep fighting. “This

work is hard, and it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” she

says. “But I’m determined to do as much as I can so

that we have fewer people who are dealing with the

ravages of gun violence.”•

A Mother’s Crusade

PuPurpose

CHOOL MASSACREByK.C.BAKER

WatchPeople Features: 10 Years Later—

The Virginia Tech Massacre, available

now on the newPeople/Entertainment

Weekly Network(PEN).Go to

people.com/PEN, or download the PEN

app on your favorite device.

PEOPLE April 24, 2017 75

MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA/REDUX; INSET: LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES