Hi friend,

Today is Father's Day and I would give anything to be able to have dinner with my dad tonight, but he was viciously stolen from my family eight years ago.

My father, Robert Godwin Sr., was shot and killed in while he was walking to my house for dinner, in a heinous, random attack that was broadcast on the internet. 

I’m the youngest of six siblings and Sunday dinner was always important to my family, even if there wasn’t a holiday. It was a time we set aside to cook delicious meals and be with our family, a tradition I still continue with my own daughter today.

That gunman didn’t just kill a person that day, he destroyed a whole family. 

Losing the strongest man I knew to gun violence left a gaping hole in my life, in my whole family, that remains to this day. What’s worse is that I know that my family is not alone in this pain, far too many have experienced the unimaginable reality of losing a loved one to gun violence and it’s why I work to stop the next tragedy.

My dad was an incredible man who was loved by his community and everyone who met him. Really, the sweetest person you would ever meet. After he retired, all my dad wanted to do was fish, he was known as the “four rods man” because he’d cast four rods and catch fish on all of them – a special skill most couldn’t achieve. He was handy and a tinkerer, collecting fans and vacuum cleaners to fix up and give to people in the community.

I wish I could be celebrating this special man with my family today, but instead, we are missing him. And I don't want any other family to feel this loss and grief. So today, I'm asking you to join me in taking action to honor the fathers that we have lost and fight for those we can still save: Will you join me in calling on Congress to take life-saving action to end gun violence?

For a long time I felt guilty, that I should’ve been able to do something to stop what happened, wondering how I could’ve changed it. I felt in limbo, like my feet couldn’t touch the ground, but I finally felt solid ground when I came to gun violence prevention work at Brady. I learned from my dad to ask what I want my legacy to be in this world and now I’ve dedicated my life to ending this uniquely American epidemic. 

And I know that if we fight together, we can save lives. 

Thank you for joining me in honoring my dad today and for your dedication to this fight every day.

Brenda Joiner

Gun Violence Survivor

Vice President, Human Resources & Operations