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Tag Archives: Uvalde

Matthew McConaughey at the White House press briefing

07 Tuesday Jun 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Tags

gun violence. White Huse, guns, Matthew McConaughey, press briefing, Texas, Uvalde

Today:

BRIEFING ROOM
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Matthew McConaughey
JUNE 07, 2022

[….]
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

2:25 P.M. EDT

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Good afternoon, everyone. So, I’d like to welcome Matthew and Camila McConaughey to the White House today to speak on an urgent issue our nation is currently facing. You may know Matthew as an actor, but more importantly, he is a father; a native of Uvalde, Texas; and a gun own- — and a gun owner.

He is here today to use his platform to call on leaders to take bipartisan action to end this senseless killing and pass reasonable gun responsibility measures that we know will save lives.

Just a few minutes ago, Matthew met briefly with the President to talk about the importance of taking action, keeping our communities safe.

But without further ado, I would like to bring up Matthew.

MR. MCCONAUGHEY: Thank you.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Here you go.

MR. MCCONAUGHEY: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Camila.

To make the loss of these lives matter.

My wife and I — my wife and I — Camila — we spent most of last week on the ground with the families in Uvalde, Texas, and we shared stories, tears, and memories.

The common thread, independent of the anger and the confusion and sadness, it was the same: How can these families continue to honor these deaths by keeping the dreams of these children and teachers alive?

Again, how can the loss of these lives matter?

So while we honor and acknowledge the victims, we need to recognize that this time it seems that something is different. There is a sense that perhaps there is a viable path forward. Responsible parties in this debate seem to at least be committed to sitting down and having a real conversation about a new and improved path forward — a path that can bring us closer together and make us safer as a country, a path that can actually get something done this time.

Camila and I came here to share my stories from my hometown of Uvalde. I came here to take meetings with elected officials on both sides of the aisle. We came here to speak to them, to speak with them, and to urge them to speak with each other — to remind and inspire them that the American people will continue to drive forward the mission of keeping our children safe, because it’s more than our right to do so, it’s our responsibility to do so.

I’m here today in the hopes of applying what energy, reason, and passion that I have into trying to turn this moment into a reality. Because as I said, this moment is different. We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before, a window where it seems like real change — real change can happen.

Uvalde, Texas, is where I was born. It’s where my mom taught kindergarten less than a mile from Robb Elementary. Uvalde is where I learned to master a Daisy BB gun. I took that — that took two years before I graduated to a 410 shotgun. Uvalde is where I was taught to revere the power and the capability of the tool that we call a gun. Uvalde is where I learned responsible gun ownership.

And Uvalde called me on May 24th, when I learned the news of this devastating tragedy. I had been out of cellular range working in the studio all day when I emerged and messages about a mass shooting in the town I was born in began flooding my inbox.

In a bit of shock, I drove home, hugged my children a bit tighter and longer than the night before, and then the reality of what had happened that day in the town I was born in set in.

So the next morning, Camila, myself, and the kids, we loaded up the truck and drove to Uvalde. And when we arrived a few hours later, I got to tell you, even from the inside of our vehicle, you could feel the shock in the town. You could feel the pain, the denial, the disillusion, anger, blame, sadness, loss of lives, dreams halted.

We saw ministries. We saw first responders, counselors, cooks, families trying to grieve without it being on the frontpage news.

We met with the local funeral director and countless morticians who — who hadn’t slept since the massacre the day before because they’d been working 24/7 trying to handle so many bodies at once — so many little, innocent bodies who had their entire lives still yet to live.

And that is there that we met two of the grieving parents, Ryan and Jessica Ramirez. Their 10-year-old daughter, Alithia — she was one of the 19 children that were killed the day before.

Now, Alithia — her dream was to go to art school in Paris and one day share her art with the world. Ryan and Jessica were eager to share Alithia’s art with us, and said if we could share it, then somehow maybe that would make Alithia smile in heaven. They told us that showing someone else Alithia’s art would in some way keep her alive.

Now, this particular drawing is a — is a self-portrait of Alithia drawing, with her friend in heaven looking down on her drawing the very same picture. Her mother said, of this drawing — she said, “You know, we never really talked to her about heaven before, but somehow she knew.”

Alithia was 10 years old.

Her father, Ryan — this man was steady. He was uncommonly together and calm. When a frazzled friend of his came up and said, “How are you so calm? I’d be going crazy,” Ryan told him — he said, “No, you wouldn’t. No, you wouldn’t. You’d be strong for your wife and kids, because if they see you go crazy, that will not help them.”

Just a week prior, Ryan got a full-time line job stringing powerlines from pole to pole. And every day since landing that well-paying, full-time job, he reminded his daughter, Alithia — he said, “Girl, Daddy going to spoil you now.” Told her every single night. He said, “Daddy is going to take you to SeaWorld one day.

But he didn’t get to — he didn’t get to spoil his daughter, Alithia. She did not get to go to SeaWorld.

We also met Ana and Dani- — Danilo, the mom and the stepdad of nine-year-old Maite Rodriguez. And Maite wanted to be a marine biologist. She was already in contact with Corpus Christi University of A&M for her future college enrollment. Nine years old.

Maite cared for the environment so strongly that when the city asked her mother if they could release some balloons into the sky in her memory, her mom said, “Oh no, Maite wouldn’t want to litter.”

Maite wore green high-top Converse with a heart she had hand-drawn on the right toe because they represented her love of nature.

Camila has got these shoes. Can you show these shoes, please?

Wore these every day. Green Converse with a heart on the right toe. These are the same green Converse on her feet that turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting. How about that?

Maite wrote a letter. Her mom said if Maite’s letter could help someone accomplish her dream, that then her death would have an impact, and it would mean her dying had a point and wasn’t pointless — that it would make the loss of her life matter.

The letter reads: “Marine biologist. I want to pass school to get to my dream college. My dream college is in Corpus Christi, by the ocean. I need to live next to the ocean because I want to be a marine biologist. Marine biologists study animals and the water. Most of the time, I will be in a lab. Sometimes, I will be on TV.”

Then there was Ellie Garcia, a 10-year-old, and her parents, Steven and Jennifer.

Ellie loved to dance, and she loved church. She even knew how to drive tractors and was already working with her dad and her uncle mowing yards.

“Ellie was always giving of her gifts, her time, even half-eaten food on her plate,” they said. They said, “Around the house, we’d call her the ‘great re-gifter.’” Smiling through tears, her family told us how Ellie loved to embrace. Said she was the biggest hugger in the family.

Now, Ellie was born Catholic, but had been going to Baptist church with her uncle for the last couple of years. Her mom and dad were proud of her because, they said, “She was learning to love God, no matter where.”

The week prior to her passing, she had been preparing to read a verse from the Bible for the next Wednesday night’s church service. The verse was from Deuteronomy 6:5. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

That’s who Ellie was becoming. But she never got to read it. Service is on a Wednesday night.

Then there was the fairytale love story of a teacher named Irma and her husband, Joe. What a great family this was. This was an amazing family.

Camila and I, we — we sat with about 20 of their family members in the living room, along with their four kids. They were — the kids were 23, 19, 15, and 13. They — they shared all these stories about Irma and Joe — served the community and would host all these parties, and how Irma and Joe were planning on getting a food truck together when they soon retired.

They were humble, hardworking people. Irma was a teacher, who, her family said, “went above and beyond, and just couldn’t say no to any kind of teaching.” Joe had been commuting to and from work 70 miles away in Del Rio for years.

Together, they were the glue of the family. Both worked overtime to support their four kids. Irma even worked every summer when school was out. The money she had made two summers ago paid to — paid to paint the front of the house. The money she made last summer paid to paint the sides of the house. This summer’s work was going to pay to paint the back of the house.

Because Irma was one of the teachers who was gunned down in the classroom, Joe, her husband, literally died of heartache the very next day when he had a heart attack.

They never got to paint the back of the house, they never got to retire, and they never got to get that food truck together.

We also met a cosmetologist. All right? She was well versed in mortuary makeup. That’s the task of making the victims appear as peaceful and natural as possible for their open-casket viewings.

These bodies were very different. They needed much more than makeup to be presentable. They needed extensive restoration. Why? Due to the exceptionally large exit wounds of an AR-15 rifle. Most of the bodies so mutilated that only DNA tests or green Converse could identify them. Many children were left not only dead, but hollow.

So yes, counselors are going to be needed in Uvalde for a long time. Counselors are needed in all these places where these mass shooters have been for a long time.

I was told by many that it takes a good year before people even understand what to do next. And even then, when they become se- — secure enough to take the first step forward, a lifetime is not going to heal those wounds.

Again, you know what every one of these parents wanted, what they asked us for? What every parent separately expressed in their own way to Camila and me? That they want their children’s dreams to live on. That they want their children’s dreams to continue to accomplish something after they are gone. They want to make their loss of life matter.

Look, we heard from — we heard from so many people, all right? Families of the deceased — mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers. Texas Rangers, hunters, Border Patrol, and responsible gun owners who won’t give up their Second Amendment right to bear arms. And you know what they all said? “We want secure and safe schools, and we want gun laws that won’t make it so easy for the bad guys to get these damn guns.”

So, we know what’s on the table. We need to invest in mental healthcare. We need safer schools. We need to restrain sensationalized media coverage. We need to restore our family values. We need to restore our American values. And we need responsible gun ownership — responsible gun ownership.

We need background checks. We need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle to 21. We need a waiting period for those rifles. We need red-flag laws and consequences for those who abuse them.

These are reasonable, practical, tactical regulations to our nation, states, communities, schools, and homes.

Responsible gun owners are fed up with the Second Amendment being abused and hijacked by some deranged individuals.

These regulations are not a step back; they’re a step forward for a civil society and — and the Second Amendment.

Look, is this a cure-all? Hell no.

But people are hurting — families are, parents are. And look, as — as divided as our country is, this gun responsibility issue is one that we agree on more than we don’t. It really is. But this should be a nonpartisan issue. This should not be a partisan issue.

There is not a Democratic or Republican value in one single act of these shooters. It’s not.

But people in power have failed to act. So we’re asking you and I’m asking you, will you please ask yourselves: Can both sides rise above? Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands?

Because we got a chance right now to reach for and to grasp a higher ground above our political affiliations, a chance to make a choice that does more than protect your party, a chance to make a choice that protects our country now and for the next generation.

We got to take a sober, humble, and honest look in the mirror and re- — rebrand ourselves based on what we truly value. What we truly value.

We got to get some real courage and honor our immortal obligations instead of our party affiliations.

Enough with the counterpunching. Enough of the invalidation of the other side. Let’s come to the common table that represents the American people. Find a mil- — middle ground, the place where most of us Americans live anyway, especially on this issue.

Because I promise you, America — you and me, who — we are not as divided as we’re being told we are. No.

How about we get inspired? Give ourselves just cause to revere our future again. Maybe set an example for our children, give us reason to tell them, “Hey, listen and watch these men and women. These are great American leaders right here. Hope you grow up to be like them.”

And let’s admit it: We can’t truly be leaders if we’re only living for reelection.

Let’s be knowledgeable and wise, and act on what we truly believe.

Again, we got to look in the mirror, lead with humility, and acknowledge the values that are inherent to but also above politics. We’ve got to make choices, make stands, embrace new ideas, and preserve the traditions that can create true — true progress for the next generation.

With real leadership, let’s start giving us — all of us, with real leadership — let’s start giving all of us good reason to believe that the American Dream is not an illusion.

So where do we start? We start by making the right choices on the issue that is in front of us today.

We start by making laws that save innocent lives and don’t infringe on our Second Amendment rights. We start right now by voting to pass policies that can keep us from having as many Columbines, Sandy Hooks, Parklands, Las Vegases, Buffaloes, and Uvaldes from here on.

We start by giving Alithia the chance to be spoiled by her dad.

We start by giving Maite a chance to become a marine biologist.

We start by giving Ellie a chance to read her Bible verse at the Wednesday night service.

We start by giving Irma and Joe a chance to finish painting their house, maybe retire and get that food truck.

We start by giving Makenna, Layla, Maranda, Nevaeh, Jose, Xavier, Tess, Rojelio, Eliahna, Annabell, Jackie, Uziyah, Jayce, Jailah, Eva, Amerie, and Lexi — we start by giving all of them our promise that their dreams are not going to be forgotten.

We start by making the loss of these lives matter.

Thank you. Thank you.

Q Sir, when you spoke to the President, did he say anything about this? Were you grandstanding just now, sir?

Q Are the changes that are being discussed (inaudible), Mr. McConaughey?

Q What’s your response to (inaudible)?

Q What was your message to the President, Mr. McConaughey?

[….]

Uvalde, Texas? Never heard of it.

06 Monday Jun 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media, US Senate

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

gun violence, guns, missouri, social media, Texas, Twitter, U.S. Senate, Uvalde, Vicky Hartzler

Read the room. Seriously.

Vicky Hartzler (r) [2021 file photo].

This morning:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler @RepHartzler
Taking away Americans’ #2A rights is the wrong approach to protect our schoolchildren.

Instead, Congress should be working to empower our law enforcement to protect our education centers and provide our schools with the resources needed to increase security.
[….]
8:17 AM · Jun 6, 2022

Because doing the same thing and expecting a different result is what?

Some of the responses:

Why does anyone need to own a gun designed to kill a lot of people very, very quickly?

Oh yes, because the police did so much for those children at #Ulvade [….]

Laws work ol’ girl, get to making and fixing them! [….]

But, but, that’s not NRA dogma.

The bubble of Active Shooter Drills has already burst Vick. It is time to remove the availability of the weapons themselves, period.

Let this sink in, “today’s school shooters have been through the Active Shooter Drills, they know the procedures, & protocols, you cannot hide.”

As a former teacher you should remember teachers personally purchase a lot of the supplies that should be provided for them. They’re spending their personal $$$ that they don’t have for our children. How is it you can find Fed $$ for guns and ammo, but not dry erase markers?

Your mistake is in believing Vicky Hartzler’s (r) “solutions” don’t require out-of-pocket expenditures by teachers.

2A was SPECIFICALLY focused on State Militias. The National Guard is what the State Militias became & addresses both the well trained & uninfringed in 2A. The idea of individuals with unlimited gun access/rights is a bastardization of 2A & impedes every other liberty we have.

Hartzler, you went to the same Archie High School I did and I grew up on a farm 2 miles from yours

Explain why back in our school days we had open doors, no guards and no worries about mass shootings. Why? We had mental sickies back then too [….]

Could it be that there no AR-15

[….] How do propose to protect all public areas, events & venues 24hrs a day? The #2A was ratified in 1789, the flintlock/musket was the state of art weapon, 2 shot pr/min, close range for accuracy.

The advance of weaponry now is compatible of hot air ballon to moon landing ..

Because we saw how well that worked in Texas.

Massachusetts has a well-regulated and constitutional approach to gun ownership, and it’s way, way safer than Texas.

Your approach is wrong.

Even though you continue to stand on #2A incorrectly, it also also didn’t say that your rights includes any kind of gun that will ever be invented no matter what it’s for and what it causes. Founders (incorrectly) thought future leaders would also carry common sense

What’s the word on chuch goers, grocery shoppers, those at the mall, walking in the street on Saturday night, at a concert in Las Vergas or anywhere else, at Temple at a spa or in Missouri that is 2nd for men killing women & 80% of those homicides are with a gun? What about them

Before I take you seriously, tell me how much money the @NRA has given you. What’s your #NRA rating!

Sycophant.

No Vicky you are wrong. Guns are absolutely the problem.

Have you done anything to help?

Narrator: “No.”

Maybe our well-regulated militias should stop attacking schools.

What’s that? Those aren’t militias? #2A

Coward

The mistake you might make is that Vicky Hartzler believes that Americans being massacred is bad. Not true! Massacres are the most important part of our heritage as Americans and she is dedicated to making sure the next generation can look forward to even more of them.

Just admit you are fine with kids being murdered.

No one needs an AR-15, designed to kill a maximum number of humans in a short time. They frighten (not to mention) kill children, adults, and cops. How many AR-15s do you own, Vicky? Why are you defending ownership of them? NRA money? There were 21 mass shootings this weekend.

What about malls, hospitals, concerts, parks, supermarkets? #GFY

Is there anything good that you stand for?

Narrator: “No.”

So children should enter a fortress to attend class, where their teachers are packin’ heat and the principal keeps an arsenal locked up in the back office.

But let’s not traumatize the kids by asking them to wear a mask![….]

The GQP cult is just weird.

I used to think they were weird. Then they got creepy. Now they’re just straight up monsters.

If the @GOP has their way, excuse me the way of their biggest briber the @NRA, they would suggest we all just wear body armor everyday of our lives to every destination that we go to because Freedumb.

And those that can’t afford the body armor, they should have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps harder.

Guns are subject to regulation per SCOTUS. You are using extremist language in an attempt to scare people of something that is, in fact, not happening. That makes you a pandering LIAR and your legislation performance art.

Schools are enough like prisons the way it is. Metal detectors and armed officers walking the halls. We need not have so many loopholes so nut jobs can buy deadly weapons!!! Stop pandering to the NRA and take action to save children’s lives!

I’m sorry, I don’t understand why we want to live in a country here you have armed people outside schools, it’s like something you see in a dystopian movie. It’s disgusting. Basically you don’t want to address the actual issue. You are pathetic and weak

Wrong again, you gunhumping #NRABloodMoney whore. How much do you earn on a per-death basis for your absolutely unconstitutional stance that private weapon ownership “to overthrow U.S. government is in any way covered by 2A? You’re a lying #GOPDomesticTerrorist. We see you.

Vicky Hartzler (r) [2016 file photo].

Go ahead, throw the punch

27 Friday May 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

guns, Jason Kander, massacre, missouri, social media, Texas, Twitter, Uvalde

Jason Kander (D) [2015 file photo].

This evening:

Then:

Jason Kander @JasonKander
I deleted a tweet about my anger about Republican politicians and guns.

Not because I don’t stand by the feeling or because anyone disagreed with me (y’all seemed to be rooting me on).

I deleted it because it just didn’t add anything and I wasn’t proud of it.
6:51 PM · May 27, 2022

They all deserve it.

If you’re not outraged today you’re not human.

Previously:

Complicit (May 24, 2022)

Always clueless, always bad timing, always blocking any solutions (May 24, 2022)

This you? (May 25, 2022)

Useless platitude (May 25, 2022)

Marketing the brand (May 26, 2022)

Useless platitude

25 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Senate, social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Denny Hoskins, guns, massacre, right wingnut, social media, Texas, thoughts and prayers, Twitter, Uvalde

Denny Hoskins (r) [2017 file photo].

This morning:

Senator Denny Hoskins, CPA @DLHoskins
Please pray for the victims and their families.
[….]
8:44 AM · May 25, 2022

Some of the responses:

Faith without works is dead.

Praying doesn’t seem to work, maybe we should try something else.

Please do something to prevent this from happening again. You weren’t elected for your ability to pray, you were elected to pass laws.

Your prayers mean absolutely NOTHING!!! You are a disgrace!

Prayers do not stop bullets common sense gun laws would be a fresh approach. Your pro birth but post birth children are collateral damage it’s GUNS no matter how many children die
[….]

This is what Dennys answer is to school shootings. 212 mass shootings in our country so far this yr, when will it happen in Mo.? Blame the elected officials who get rich off the NRA to pass laws that favor GUNS over your child’s life.
[….]

No outrage only prayers that don’t stop bullets
[….]

You passed #SAPA which was opposed by law enforcement and would prevent federal authorities from helping when (not if) there’s a school shooting in Missouri. You’ve made it easier to buy guns.

You don’t care about any of these people. Spare is your false prayers.

Log off, Denny.

#moleg

Obviously we’ve been praying for over 20 years. It doesn’t seem to be working because it keeps happening and you all are complicit and choose unfettered access to guns over living, breathing human beings. So you too can STFU.

This you?

25 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri House, social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

guns, Mary Elizabeth Coleman, massacre, right wingnut, social media, Texas, thoughts and prayers, Twitter, Uvalde

Mary Elizabeth Coleman (r) [2019 file photo].

Last night:

MaryElizabethColeman @meaccoleman
Eternal rest be granted to them.

And wrap your arms around them.
9:53 PM · May 24, 2022

December 2021:

Mary Elizabeth Coleman
Hoping Santa had you on the nice list.
[….]

Thoughts and prayers, eh?

President Joe Biden – May 24, 2022

25 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

guns, Joe Biden, massacre, Texas, Uvalde

Joe Biden (D) [2020 file photo].

Last night:

Remarks by President Biden on the School Shooting in Uvalde, Texas
MAY 24, 2022

[….]
Roosevelt Room
8:41 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, fellow Americans.

I had hoped, when I became President, I would not have to do this again.

Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, innocent second, third, fourth graders. And how many scores of little children who witnessed what happened see their friends die as if they’re on a battlefield, for God’s sake. They’ll live with it the rest of their lives.

There’s a lot we don’t know yet, but there’s a lot we do know.

There are parents who will never see their child again, never have them jump in bed and cuddle with them. Parents who will never be the same.

To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There’s a hollowness in your chest, and you feel like you’re being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out. It’s suffocating. And it’s never quite the same.

And it’s a feeling shared by the siblings, and the grandparents, and their family members, and the community that’s left behind.

Scripture says — Jill and I have talked about this in different contexts, in other contexts: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” So many crushed spirits.

So, tonight, I ask the nation to pray for them, to give the parents and siblings the strength in the darkness they feel right now.

As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?

It’s been 340- — 3,448 days — 10 years since I stood up at a high school in Connecticut — a grade school in Connecticut, where another gunman massacred 26 people, including 20 first graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Since then, there have been over 900 incidents of gunfires reported on school grounds.

Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Santa Fe High School in Texas. Oxford High School in Michigan. The list goes on and on.

And the list grows when it includes mass shootings at places like movie theaters, houses of worship, and, as we saw just 10 days ago, at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage.

I spent my career as a senator and as Vice President working to pass commonsense gun laws. We can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have a positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled.

The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong.

What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?

Deer aren’t running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, for God’s sake. It’s just sick.

And the gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons which make them the most and largest profit.

For God’s sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry.

Here’s what else I know: Most Americans support commonsense laws — commonsense gun laws.

I just got off my trip from Asia, meeting with Asian leaders, and I learned of this while I was on the aircraft. And what struck me on that 17-hour flight — what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world.

Why? They have mental health problems. They have domestic disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost. But these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency that they happen in America. Why?

Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it and stand up to the lobbies?

It’s time to turn this pain into action.

For every parent, for every citizen in this country, we have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: It’s time to act.

It’s time — for those who obstruct or delay or block the commonsense gun laws, we need to let you know that we will not forget.

We can do so much more. We have to do more.

Our prayer tonight is for those parents, lying in bed and trying to figure out, “Will I be able to sleep again? What do I say to my other children? What happens tomorrow?”

May God bless the loss of innocent life on this sad day. And may the Lord be near the brokenhearted and save those crushed in spirit, because they’re going to need a lot of help and a lot of our prayers.

God love you.

8:48 P.M. EDT

Previously:

Vice President Kamala Harris – May 24, 2022 (May 25, 2022)

Vice President Kamala Harris – May 24, 2022

25 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

guns, Kamala Harris, massacre, Texas, Uvalde

Kamala Harris (D) [2019 file photo].

Last night:

Remarks by Vice President Harris at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies 28th Annual Awards
MAY 24, 2022
[….]

7:06 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: [….]

Tonight is a rough night. We planned for a great celebration, but I’m sure most of you have heard the tragic news about what has happened in Texas.

So I had prepared comments about tonight, which I will speak, but I just first want to begin by saying a few words about the tragedy that occurred today in Uvalde, Texas.

As many of you now, the reports are that there was a mass shooting at an elementary school, and the preliminary reports are that 14 children have been killed. And the details are still coming in, and of course the President and I are monitoring the situation closely.

So while we don’t know all the details yet, we do know that there are parents who have lost children, families that have lost children and their loves ones, of course, and many others who may have been injured.

So, I would normally say in a moment like this — we would all say naturally — that our hearts break, but our hearts keep getting broken.

You know, I think so many — there’s so many elected leaders in this room. You know what I’m talking about. Every time a tragedy like this happens, our hearts break, and our broken hearts are nothing compared to the broken hearts of those families. And yet, it keeps happening.

So, I think we all know and have said many times with each other: Enough is enough. Enough is enough.

As a nation, we have to have the courage to take action and understand the nexus between what make for reasonable and sensible public policy to ensure something like this never happens again.

So, the President will speak more about this later. But for now, I will just say to the people of Uvalde: Please know that this is a room full of leaders who grieve with you. And we are praying for you, and we stand with you.

And it is difficult at a time like this to think about much else, but I do look around this room and I know who is here, and I know this is a room full of American leaders who know and have the courage to take a stand.

And so let us, tonight, as we do every time we all get together, recommit ourselves to having the courage to take action.

[….]

Complicit

24 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

guns, Jason Kander, social media, Texas, Twitter, Uvalde

Jason Kander (D) [2016 file photo].

Tonight:

Jason Kander @JasonKander
If you’re an American politician who has opposed gun reforms these past few years and right now you’re having doubts, thinking maybe these kids deaths could have been prevented, maybe you’re somehow responsible, allow me to help.

Yes. You are.

Time to do the right thing.
7:03 PM · May 24, 2022

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