Oak Creek Shooting Victims Call For Action

The sons of slain Oak Creek Sikh temple president Satawant Singh Kaleka joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's call for government action on combating gun violence.

Pardeep and Amardeep Kaleka were among 34 people affected by gun violence who attended a press conference Monday in New York City in which Bloomberg pressed Congress and President Barack Obama for a plan to stop gun violence.

The press conference was three days after a horrifying attack at a Connecticut elementary school that killed 26 people, including 20 children.

"Words alone cannot heal our nation — only action can do that," Bloomberg said. "Gun violence is a national epidemic and a national tragedy that demands more than words.

"We are the only industrialized country that has this problem. In the whole world, the only one. And that's why we need immediate national action from the president and from Congress. It should be at the top of their agenda. Because what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School was, sadly, no aberration."

The Kalekas and Kamaljit Saini, whose mother was killed in the temple shooting, also recorded videos posted on demandaplan.org. The pair talk about the impact the shootings had on them and ask the country's leaders what they are going to do to stop gun violence.

"Coming home used to be a joy — we came home to her and she came home to us," Saini says in the video. "Now my brother and I come home to an empty house. We have each other. That's all we have."

The Aug. 5 attack at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, which left six dead and four wounded, has been mentioned frequently since Friday's school shooting as the debate over gun control intensifies.

President Barack Obama has cited the Oak Creek shooting twice—on the day of the school shooting and in a speech Sunday night in Newtown.

"As a country we have been through this too many times. Whether it's an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago, these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children," Obama said in a statement Friday afternoon.

The Sikh and Oak Creek communities reacted with both frustration over another mass shooting and resolve to make things better at a vigil held at the temple Sunday night.