By John Hickenlooper and Gabby Giffords

Two Saturdays ago, a gunman shot and killed three people and wounded several others in Twin Falls, Idaho. This latest deadly shooting comes only days after we remembered the lives we lost 14 years ago in Colorado.

On July 20, 2012, Colorado faced one of the worst nights in our state’s history. Twelve people were killed, 70 more were wounded and countless lives were forever changed when one man opened fire in a crowded movie theater, armed with a rifle and a 100-round magazine.

In the wake of the Aurora shootings, we were a community ravaged by grief. We’ll never forget the pain we felt, or the lives taken from us too soon, but we took action to honor the victims and prevent other Colorado families from knowing the devastating effect of gun violence.

In 2013, when federal progress stalled, Colorado rejected the gun lobby’s pressure and passed laws that have saved lives. We enforced universal background checks and banned high-capacity magazines holding more than 15 rounds.

Colorado has continued to lead, enacting laws like Jessi’s Law that allows gun manufacturers and sellers to be held accountable when their negligence puts firearms or ammunition in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.

Then, in 2022, following the tragic shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York, our nation took another step forward. We passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the first major federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years.

Our basic idea was to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. It worked to help close the boyfriend loophole to prevent domestic abusers from buying guns and also strengthened red flag laws to stop people who are a danger to themselves or others from buying or having guns. We strengthened background checks for 18-to-21-year-olds and invested in our communities through mental health and violence prevention programs.

In just the first two years of the BSCA, we stopped convicted domestic abusers from making 10,000 gun purchases, prevented 800 firearm purchases with enhanced background checks for younger buyers and helped schools across the country develop safety plans and invest in mental health and violence prevention programs.

These are meaningful steps, but gun violence is still the leading cause of death for American kids. Much more is needed.

Fourteen years after the Aurora shooting, this administration is opting to go backward. This May, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice announced lawsuits against Colorado’s ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines and Denver’s assault weapons ban.

Instead of focusing on keeping families safe, they are attacking the gun safety measures we established in response to violence that tore our community apart.

But we refuse to let Trump bully Colorado into reversing the laws that reduce gun violence and protect our kids.

We’ve both traveled across Colorado and everywhere we go we hear how concerned people are about ending America’s gun violence epidemic.

Colorado has endured more than 68 mass shootings since 2020, and communities of color are disproportionately burdened by gun violence. Black women are twice as likely to be killed by an intimate partner. Black children are 11 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than their white peers; Hispanic and Latino children are two-and-a-half times more likely.

These are the facts the Trump administration is demanding we ignore as they try to bully us into changing our laws — all while their disastrous approach stokes further violence and division. Just last month, we saw more ICE-related shootings, including one here in Aurora. Trump’s allies in Colorado are racing to back them up.

Keeping our communities safe and guns out of the hands of dangerous people should be common sense. We should pass laws that build on our Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Laws like the Assault Weapons Ban, the Background Check Expansion, Victims Access to Justice Acts and Ethan’s Law would all get us closer to ending the gun violence epidemic and protecting our communities.

Our communities — our kids — deserve leaders who will defend our communities, support laws to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and stand up to President Donald Trump’s violence. All of our lives depend on it.

Former U.S. Rep Gabby Giffords was a Democrat serving Arizona at the U.S. Capitol from 2007 to 2012. She is the founder of Giffords, a national organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence. Sen. John Hickenlooper was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020 after eight years as governor of Colorado. He served as Denver mayor from 2003 to 2011 and Colorado governor from 2011 to 2019.