July 04, 2023

On Anniversary of Highland Park Shooting, Duckworth Honors Victims at Remembrance Ceremony and Community Walk

 

[HIGHLAND PARK, IL] – On the one-year anniversary of the Fourth of July mass shooting, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) returned to Highland Park to join with community members and leaders for a remembrance ceremony and community walk. Today’s ceremony honored the memory of the seven lives lost, followed by a walk with community members along the 2022 parade route. Duckworth today joined leaders including U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), U.S. Representative Brad Schneider (D-IL-10), Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, along with hundreds of community members. Photos from today’s events are available here.

“When families gathered in Highland Park to observe the Fourth of July last year, they were there to celebrate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Duckworth said. “They woke up that morning eager to take pride in our nation and celebrate America at its best. Instead, they experienced the worst of it. One year later, I’m thinking of the families who lost loved ones and a community that is forever impacted by this tragedy. For the sake of the seven people we lost, and all gun violence survivors who’ve experienced the unimaginable, we must get weapons of war off our streets. I promise to never stop working for commonsense gun safety legislation that saves lives and helps make massacres like these relics of a heartbreaking past.”

Last month, the Senate passed Duckworth and Durbin’s resolution expressing the condolences of the Senate and honoring the victims and survivors of the mass shooting. In the wake of the events in Highland Park last year, Duckworth made an impassioned call for gun safety reforms on the Senate floor. The week after that, Duckworth also delivered opening remarks to a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on protecting our communities from mass shootings where she emphasized that our nation’s gun violence epidemic is now the leading cause of death for young Americans and implored her colleagues to support additional commonsense gun safety reforms. Duckworth has also met with Highland Park survivors and students multiple times throughout the past year.

Duckworth has been a fierce advocate of getting weapons of war off our streets. She supported the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed into law to help crack down on straw purchasing, expand background checks for buyers under 21 years of age, take steps to close the “boyfriend loophole,” support state red flag laws and offer billions in funding for counseling, mental health, and trauma support for victims of gun violence.

-30-