Jan. 8 survivors on Aurora: 'How many more murders with guns?'

A group of survivors and family members of victims of the 2011 Tucson shooting released a statement Sunday regarding Friday's movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., calling for better gun background checks:

Our hearts go out to the victims and survivors of the tragic mass shooting in Aurora. Please know that all of the people of Aurora are in our minds and hearts.

There are no words to express the horror that the people of Aurora are experiencing now, or that we experienced on January 8, 2011. But words are not enough. We need our elected officials to take action to fix our nation's broken gun laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands. That's why our group of survivors of the Tucson shooting are working hard to encourage our elected officials to take action. Some of us are gun owners and hunters ourselves, and we know that this can be done while still protecting the rights of lawful gun owners.

In fact, it's been 16 months since President Obama boldly outlined his plan to do just that. But since then, it appears that no action has been taken to implement the President's plan. We look forward to meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder in the near future to discuss how we can work together to fix our gun background check system.

We call on President Obama and Mitt Romney, and all elected officials and candidates for office to pledge to join us in working to fix our gun laws and help stop the tragic toll that gun violence has on communities across the country. They can honor the memory of the victims of Tucson, Aurora, Virginia Tech, and the 34 other Americans that are murdered with guns every day by taking action. Their actions would save lives, maybe the life of someone they love. We have a simple question for our nation's leaders: How much more pain, how much more sorrow, and how many more murders with guns must we suffer before we do something about it?

This statement can be attributed to the following Tucson survivors and family members of victims:

• Dr. David Bowman, Tucson survivor
• Nancy Bowman, Tucson survivor
• Ken Dorushka, wounded in Tucson shooting
• Carol Dorushka, Tucson survivor
• Roxanna Green, mother of victim Christina-Taylor Green
• Pat Maisch, Tucson survivor
• Angela Robinson, daughter of victim Dorwan Stoddard
• Faith Salzgeber, Tucson survivor
• Roger Salzgeber, Tucson survivor
• Pam Simon, wounded in Tucson shooting
• Mavy Stoddard, wounded in Tucson shooting and wife of victim Dorwan Stoddard