Their remarks came just weeks after congressional Democrats staged a sit-in to force debate and votes on legislation that would expand background checks on firearms purchases and bar gun sales to suspected terrorists.
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Christine Leinonen, a former MI state trooper whose son was murdered at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, said when she went into labor with him years ago the hospital had locked up her weapon.
Leinonen, a former MI state trooper who said her gun was taken at the hospital while she was in labor, questioned why “commonsense gun laws” were in place at the time of Christopher’s birth, but not today.
Leinonen was a MI state trooper when her son, Christopher, was born. “I never gave up, and to you who have lost relatives, don’t give up”.
She told touching tales about her dead son, including the detail that he was a big Clinton supporter.
Brandon Wolf and Jose Arraigada, who survived the Pulse nightclub shooting, joined Leinonen on the stage.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy says he’s “furious” about the lack of progress on gun control in the years since 20 first-graders and six adults were killed at the Connecticut school.
“I would simply turn the floor over to him, but you know what happens when you do that”, said Peter Ambler, executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions, as he kicked off an hourlong discussion about how Democrats think gun control can be a winning issue in November. “And it’s good politics for her and candidates that are running”.
The Clinton team points to data suggesting that women in suburban parts of battleground states such as North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia can be persuaded to back Clinton because of her stance on guns.
Clinton, she said, would enact sensible gun control.
Erica Smegielski, whose mother Dawn Hochsprung was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting, said the country needs “another mother who’s willing to do what’s right, whose bravery can live up in equal measure to my own mother’s”. And the duo atop the party’s ticket – presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine – have put the fight for tougher gun laws at the heart of their campaign for the White House.
The 40-minute program ended with a star-studded cover of Burt Bacharach’s “What the world needs now is love”, with dozens of stars including Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell and Rosie Perez passing the microphone and leaving the crowd on their feet chanting “Love trumps hate”. “We look forward to exposing Hillary Clinton’s lies about her support of extreme gun control”.
Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate, stands on stage with Gabrielle Giffords, former U.S. Representative from Arizona, center, and her husband astronaut Mark Kelly during a campaign event in Manchester, N.H., February 3, 2016. “We don’t need another Charleston or San Bernardino or Dallas”, she said.
Another prominent victim of gun violence took a different stage this morning, however.
“As much as we don’t like to think about it, we live in unsafe times”, Cox said.
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For the past two decades, Democrats have been timid and even paralyzed when it comes to guns, afraid of agitating the powerful gun lobby and alienating firearms owners.
