The Fake 'Trump' Shooting Video Is Glorifying the Gun Violence That Killed My Mother. We Don't Have Time for This | Opinion

I saw the headlines on my Facebook feed, and I kept on scrolling. But the headlines continued to take over my feed. So I did it. I clicked and saw what everyone else did: a video depicting a fake President Donald Trump committing acts of violence—including shooting and stabbing members of the media and his political opponents—while at church.

I was shocked. I was appalled. I was sick to my stomach.

Surely, this couldn't be, but I quickly learned that the animated video was in fact shown at a sanctioned political event for supporters of the president at his resort, the Trump National Doral Miami.

I refuse to retell the play-by-play of the video, but I can give you the play-by-play of how this dangerous rhetoric can actually be a shared reality for many—including myself.

My mother, Mrs. Ethel Lance; my cousins, Tywanza Sanders and Susie Jackson; and my childhood friend Myra Thompson were killed, along with five others, in 2015 at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. That act of violence changed my entire life in a second.

I remember vividly the missed calls from my daughter. There were six of them.

I remember her telling me something had happened at Grammy's church. And I remember knowing at that very moment—even before it was confirmed—that my momma would be dead. For it was where she spent seven days a week, where she had worked as the church sexton for the five years and where she worshipped as a member of the congregation.

In the days and weeks after, I prayed. I prayed every minute of every day. Even my years of experience as a trauma chaplain couldn't have prepared me for this trauma. In the moment, my training was useless, as I never fathomed gun violence could actually happen to me.

Fast-forward to more than four years later, and I still pray for those taken from us while at church, and I pray for the more than 100 Americans shot and killed every day, along with the hundreds more who are wounded. I thought by now that elected officials in Congress would have taken more action to prevent gun violence.

Every time I hear the news of another shooting, I know the pain of those families, friends, neighbors and community. I wish this pain on no one.

And to see this kind of pain used for political gain to depict the president of the United States targeting the news media and those who disagree with him was not just offensive. It was downright hurtful.

Every single person—lawmaker or not—should condemn the video and behavior. Gun violence in this country is an urgent crisis that demands immediate action. That's why it's so infuriating to see news coverage of this garbage fake video when what we all want to see is news about our leaders taking action to save lives.

Still, the president and the Senate majority leader choose to sit on their hands when instead they could enact common-sense legislation that would help save lives, including legislation that would require background checks on all gun sales, legislation that would address the "Charleston loophole" and legislation that would enact a strong red flag law. We have a lot of work that can and should be done. We don't have time or patience for videos that make light of gun violence and promote violence.

This is a life-or-death issue. You can't imagine the pain from just seeing a video.

Reverend Sharon Risher is a member of the Everytown Survivor Network and a volunteer for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America whose mother, Ethel Lee Lance, was killed, along with eight others, including two cousins and a childhood friend, during the mass shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.