After making a surprise visit to the scene of the Fourth of July mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris made a demand for an assault weapons ban in Chicago on Tuesday.
Local officials were greeted by Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff close to the scene of the Fourth of July parade shooting that left seven people dead.
Harris reassured the police and other officials gathered close to the crime site, saying, “We’re here for you and we stand with you.” Naturally, as we usually say since it is true, “And of course, we’re praying for you.”
When the shooter opened fire on Monday, the strollers, kids’ bikes, and other items were still strewn across the brick walkway.
The vice president said, “There will be a lot of physical and mental healing that needs to occur.” There is no doubt that the trauma from this incident will remain, therefore I want to urge all the families and all the individuals to get the support they so well need.
Later, the mayor of Highland Park, Nancy Rotering, expressed her gratitude for Harris’ advice to first responders on CNN, describing the situation as “unbelievably horrible.”
In terms of national policy, Harris added, “We’ve got to be smarter about who gets access to what, and in particular, assault weapons. And we must take this matter seriously, just as seriously as you do because you are obligated to do so.
She continued, “The entire nation should comprehend and have a degree of empathy and recognize that this could happen anywhere – in any society that values peace.” And we ought to unite and express our views on why it must end.
Harris recently addressed the National Education Association’s annual convention in Chicago when she also mentioned that “our nation is still mourning the loss of those 19 babies and their two teachers in Uvalde.” She also mentioned the July 4 incident.
She addressed the teachers union membership, saying, “This massacre was the most recent reminder – in Uvalde – of the risks that our children and our educators face every day.”
Teachers shouldn’t need to rehearse blocking entrances to classrooms. It shouldn’t be necessary for teachers to be trained in gunshot wound care. Harris remarked, to cheers from the audience, “And teachers shouldn’t be told that lives may have been saved if only you had a gun.”
She described the shooting during the Highland Park parade as a tragedy.
As we all know, yesterday should have been a day to gather with loved ones and friends to commemorate the independence of our country. Instead, a horrible catastrophe struck that town. Harris referred to the victims of a senseless act of gun violence as children, parents, and grandparents.
She claimed that she and Emhoff were praying for the living while lamenting the deaths.
And we all mourn the lives that have been irrevocably altered in that neighborhood, including, of course, the students and instructors who have suffered great loss, Harris said.
We must put an end to this horror, I don’t need to tell NEA that. We must put an end to this bloodshed, she added. “And we need to defend our neighborhoods from the terror of gun violence.”
The vice president said, “You know, I’ve said it before: Enough is enough.”
She cited the most recent bipartisan gun control legislation, but claimed it wasn’t comprehensive enough and called for the reinstatement of the assault weapons prohibition.
“You know, I’ll talk in a second about how much you teachers teach the kids. And you teach the kids to think critically, among other things, Harris said.
So let’s discuss what an assault weapon is intended to accomplish, she said. “Assault weapons are made to quickly kill lots of people,”
There is no justification for having weapons of war on American streets, she continued. She said, “We need reasonable gun safety regulations!” to cheers from the audience.
NEA member and First Lady Jill Biden, a college professor, was also mentioned by Harris to loud applause.
Harris stated, “I have seen her go straight from the classroom to events at the White House or across the nation and throughout the world, grading papers in between.” She is a fantastic educator who encourages us all, just like you, so.
Harris went even further into politics by branding numerous Republican leaders as “extremists” and criticizing them for opposing Roe v. Wade, banning assault weapons, and raising teacher compensation.
While you labor to instill the values of liberty and freedom in your students, Harris claimed, “these so-called “leaders” are robbing people of their freedoms—freedoms from women and the right to control their own bodies, freedom from a Florida kindergarten to third-grade teacher to love openly and with pride, and freedom from every American as they consciously work to make it more difficult for people to cast ballots.”
The radical “leaders,” as she put it, “need to take a civics lesson,” she remarked.
Harris remarked, “I genuinely believe it would be in our best interests for all of us if they sat in your school for a few days to recall how a democracy works.”
She reaffirmed what President Joe Biden said on Monday in honor of the Fourth of July, namely that sometimes a country must go backward in order to move ahead.
We all understand that history has never been a straight path of development; even when we make progress, there will inevitably be setbacks.
Those setbacks can be more severe at some points than at others, she noted. This is one of those times, but we won’t let that stop us.