LITTLETON, Colo. — Even on days as difficult as the one after another school shooting, Tom Mauser walks in Daniel's shoes.
“So these are the shoes he was wearing that day," said Mauser. "And to me that was such a powerful metaphor."
When Mauser wears the decades-old sneakers, he gives his son a voice.
“What I especially admired about him was he took on his weaknesses – so for example he was very shy and yet he chose to join the debate team at Columbine, and he was one of the really good debaters they had," said Mauser.
It's that quality in his son that compelled Mauser to go to a protest against the National Rifle Association (NRA) Convention less than two weeks after his son was killed at Columbine High School in 1999.
"I could deal with my shyness and my reluctance," Mauser said.
He ended up being the only parent at the protest against the NRA at the convention that still went forward so soon after the shooting.
"It was the knowledge that Daniel had mentioned to me, he’d asked me if I knew there were loopholes in the Brady Bill, and then he was killed with a gun that was purchased through one of those loopholes in the Brady Bill," said Mauser. "The gun show loophole. And I knew that that loophole was probably there because of the NRA.”
Mauser would later become a leader in the Colorado effort that closed the loophole that allowed people to purchase firearms at a gun show without a background check.
Although the loophole was closed in Colorado, it is still a state-by-state decision.
“The main frustration is nothing happening at the national level," said Mauser. No real national acknowledgement. No coupling of the political parties to say yes we’re going to do something about this.”
After each new tragedy, Mauser keeps speaking.
“No I haven’t stopped," he said.
The 2022 NRA Convention is set to go forward in Houston this weekend, just days after 19 kids and two teachers were killed a few hours away in Uvalde.
"Yeah the ironies to me are pretty overwhelming," said Mauser.
In a statement the NRA said, when they gather in Houston, they will pledge to redouble their commitment to making schools secure.
Protests against the convention are planned there, too.
Mauser has the same message he did 23 years ago.
"The NRA has a lot of impact," said Mauser. "They could change things if they chose to but right now it’s about sales, it’s about money. That’s really what it’s about."
Years of history repeating itself does not deter Mauser from advocacy.
Daniel can't speak, so he will.
"You know in a way it’s a way of keeping Daniel alive," he said. "You know, keeping his memory alive. Seeing him acting through me.”
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