Son of Sikh Temple shooting victim reacts to Navy Yard shooting

OAK CREEK (WITI) -- Monday's Washington Navy Shipyard shooting happened a day before the relatives of mass shooting victims were scheduled to be in Washington. They are going there to testify in favor of stricter gun laws. Among them is Amardeep Kaleka, whose father was killed in the Sikh Temple shooting last August.

"It brings you back to Square A when you see something like what happened at the Navy Yard. You just start to unravel at your core because everything you thought couldn't happen is happening," Amardeep Kaleka said.

FOX6 News caught up with Amardeep Kaleka before he left for Washington, D.C., where he was set to meet up with the relatives of victims from shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Aurora, Colorado, Virginia Tech and Tucson. The group will testify in support of universal background checks on gun sales.

"We have a family that shouldn't even be together. We see each other when tragedies happen. It's the most outrageous thing to even be seeing each other," Amardeep Kaleka said.

As for Kaleka's immediate family, his brother Pardeep delivered the keynote address at the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office's annual awards ceremony. While he's staying in Milwaukee, Pardeep Kaleka echoes his brother.

"We're not looking to take guns from responsible gun owners, but just have some more steps in place so that responsible gun owners are the ones guaranteed to have these guns," Pardeep Kaleka said.

Amardeep Kaleka will now meet with his second family -- the one formed by tragedy -- and unfortunately, that family grew larger on Monday.

Amardeep Kaleka says he will give relatives of those lost at the Navy Yard all the space they need.

"We never reach out to them, they reach out to us. They say 'I wanna join this coalition.' We never reach out to them because that's, kind of like, lobbying in the wrong way. Sandy Hook is a great example; half the families have joined the coalition," Amardeep Kaleka said.

Amardeep Kaleka says the group will testify about more than gun laws -- they also want to address the availability of counseling for the mentally ill, as well as what he calls a culture of violence in our country.