orfanos pediatrics :: Article CreatorGrieving Mom Who Rejected 'Thoughts And Prayers' After Calif. Mass Shooting Wants To Change Gun Laws
Not long after Susan Orfanos returned from identifying her son as a victim of last November's Thousand Oaks, Calif., shooting, a news crew pulled up to her home.
Her first thought was to ask them to leave, but her anger at what happened to her 27-year-old son — one of 12 victims fatally shot inside the Borderline Bar & Grill — took over.
"I don't want prayers," she told reporters on Nov. 8. "I don't want thoughts. I want gun control."
Orfanos' emotional plea for gun-control legislation went viral and she became an unintentional activist.
"I've never been so angry in my life — ever," Orfanos, 59, recalls in this week's issue of PEOPLE. "I just couldn't control my rage. We loved our son. He was supposed to come home that night and he didn't."
Tel, an inventory manager at a car dealership and a part-time bouncer at Borderline, had gone to the bar that night to hang out with friends. It had become a sanctuary of sorts after he survived another mass shooting: the 2017 rampage in Las Vegas that killed more than 50 concertgoers at a country music festival.
"Tel mattered and all those other people matter," Orfanos says "I can't stay silent."
• For more on Susan Orfano's heartbreaking story, subscribe now to PEOPLE or pick up this week's issue, on newsstands now.
Since that fateful November day, Orfanos, her husband Marc and their youngest son have lobbied for stronger gun laws. They are pushing for federally mandated background checks for all gun sales.
Orfanos, who works as a project manager for an insurance company, wrote an op-ed just weeks after her son's death, pleading for an end to the bloodshed.
"I woke up this morning realizing that Tel was one of approximately 35,000 victims of gun violence for 2018," she wrote. "The violence must stop. We need to stop the money that FUNDS this violence. Tell your senators, your congresspeople, that this MUST stop. Go to your local Moms Demand Action meeting. DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING. NO ONE is exempt. And lightning strikes twice."
Facebook
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Orfanos wonders if more people would have survived if the shooter, a Marine veteran, didn't have a semi-automatic weapon and a high capacity magazine.
"What if that man didn't have a semi-automatic weapon and a high capacity magazine?" she wrote. "Would more have escaped? Would more have survived their injuries? What if that man didn't have a weapon at all?"
She also wonders if things would have turned out different "if we treated our military not as troops but as the protectors of our homes and families?"
"What if we provided those men and women with full support during and after their service? With financial aid and a holistic approach to their care? Their minds and hearts as well as their bodies? What if we didn't require them to justify their needs but provided that support to them as their due? What if? Then we would not be living in this alternate, splintered life in which Tel does not."
"I know they say it's political," she says. "I believe it's a public health issue. They said it's complicated. It's life or death. I choose life. I would have chosen life for my son."
Tel had grown into a good man, she says. "One of the tragedies of this is that we won't be able to experience the man he still could become," says Orfanos. "We miss him every minute of every day."
Thousand Oaks Shooting Victim's Mother Pleads, 'I Don't Want Thoughts. I Want Gun Control'
Your browser is not supportedusatoday.Com
usatoday.Com wants to ensure the best experience for all of our readers, so we built our site to take advantage of the latest technology, making it faster and easier to use.
Unfortunately, your browser is not supported. Please download one of these browsers for the best experience on usatoday.Com
Mom Of Thousand Oaks Shooting Victim Calls For Better Gun Control, No Longer Wants 'thoughts And Prayers'
The mother of one of the victims killed in the shooting that erupted at a Thousand Oaks bar said she was done receiving thoughts and prayers and pushed for better gun control.
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (KABC) -- The mother of one of the victims killed in the shooting that erupted at a Thousand Oaks bar said she was done receiving thoughts and prayers and pushed for better gun control.
Susan Orfanos also said her son, Telemachus Orfanos, survived the Las Vegas mass shooting last year.
"My son was in Las Vegas with a lot of his friends and he came home. He didn't come home last night, and I don't want prayers. I don't want thoughts. I want gun control, and I hope to God nobody sends me anymore prayers. I want gun control. No more guns," she said.
Orfanos was one of 12 people killed while attending a college night event at Borderline Bar and Grill Wednesday night.
A gunman, identified as 28-year-old Ian David Long, deployed a smoke device and opened fire on patrons at the bar. Authorities said he appeared to have used a .45-caliber handgun that he'd purchased legally.
The motive for the shooting is unknown.
Copyright © 2025 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
Comments
Post a Comment