July 12, 2022

Duckworth at Gun Reform Rally: Enough Was Enough a Long Time Ago

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] — Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined mothers from the Highland Park area, as well as survivors from the July 4th massacre and other mass shootings like Uvalde and Parkland at a rally on Capitol Hill to speak out about the need for additional commonsense gun safety reforms. Duckworth, a mother of two young daughters, emphasized the moral obligation to protect our nation’s children and every community across America from senseless gun violence. Duckworth continued by extending her condolences to Highland Park and the many communities mourning from preventable gun crimes. Today’s demonstration came a little over a week after the tragic Highland Park Parade massacre and several community members and parade attendees were present.

  “I am so upset and so angry. Because I have a four-year-old and I was telling folks yesterday that after Uvalde, I was scrolling, looking for where I could buy ballistic backpacks and ballistic whiteboard markers for whiteboards for my daughter's school. Is that where we are today? Is that where we are? Where we send our kids to school with ballistic backpacks? And by the way, a ballistic backpack would not have saved anybody on the Fourth of July because they just can’t block against that velocity, the firepower that comes from these weapons. We need to raise the buying age for assault weapons. We need to ban them. We need to ban high-capacity magazines.”

 “So, get angry. Stay angry. Let's get this done. I will show up every single day—yesterday, I was asked to and it seems so overwhelming and it seems depressing. But I show up every single day because I want my kids to grow up. I want your kids to grow up. I want this to be an America where somebody’s Second Amendment rights does not cancel out somebody else’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Your Second Amendment Right does not cancel out my kids right to live. Thank you for letting me be here. Let’s get out and lets fight.”

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