The family of Alaina Housley, including Tamera Mowry-Housley, are calling for change after the 18-year-old died during Wednesday's mass shooting in California.
The family spoke to CBS News about the young woman's death.
"My daughter's body was brought back to Napa today," said her father, Arik Housley. "We're going to bury her in four days. I should not have to do that."
Adam Housley, her uncle and a former Fox News correspondent, admitted he had covered stories like this but shared following this one has been surreal because Alaina is family.
"I've been to these things, Lee. You have,” Adam said to CBS’s Lee Cowan. “You've covered these things; you go home, and you sit there, and you're like, you know, my gosh, how are these people going to get through it? And now we're living it."
Tamera teared up when she spoke of her niece.
"Alaina was beautiful," the actress recalled. "And she was my friend. Yes, there needs to be a change, but all the noise… nothing's been done."
The family doesn’t want the conversation to end at gun control, thoughts, prayers or politics. They want to bring back common decency.
"To us, it's to be kind to one another. It's to put down your technology, put down your phones and look at somebody and have a conversation. It's not about gun control; this message is about doing something bigger, to be with your community, to love one another,” Arik said, adding he believes his daughter might be alive if someone had reached out to shooter Ian David Long.
"What if somebody walked up to the guy and just asked him how he was doing that day and said, 'Hello' to him or did something that may have just changed his mind, instead of ignoring, or whatever we're doing?" the father asked.
Tamera agrees with her brother-in-law.
"I think it starts there," she said. "You start with imagining, 'Wait a minute, what if that was my child, or my niece, or my cousin?' It will get you in a place of just having some sort of human decency."
Adam Housley said he has received many insulting tweets due to his affiliation with Fox News and has relied on support from his family to help him get through the comments. He believes that’s what his niece would have wanted.
"She would want to happen what happened today, when we drove down that street, I saw people of all colors, all ages, people I've never seen, and I was born and raised in this town, hugging, holding hands, shaking hands," Adam said. "She'd want that to happen at the national level."
Long stormed into Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, California, on October 7 and killed 12 people, including Alaina, before he committed suicide. This shooting is the 307th mass shooting to occur in 2018, according to USA Today.
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