March 24, 2018

I hear you and I am listening.

Today, I have chosen not to crowd the stage at the March for Our Lives, so your voices are heard.

It’s powerful when we listen. It says that we value your worth and care about what you have to say.

The March for our Lives is not about platitudes and talking points. It’s about saving our communities from gun violence one act at a time.

The reality is that our schools are unsafe. Our schools hold the highest potential for you to thrive, but we have failed you. For every school massacre that makes national headlines there is also a community reeling from tragic street violence that does not reach our airwaves.

Surviving gun violence is not a shared experience I want for you or my children. Yet, many of our national leaders refuse to do the right thing. They refuse to see that the value of your life is not equivalent to an NRA donation. You deserve more than what you’ve inherited.

Until we pass legislation that fights the epidemic that kills nearly seven kids and teens every day, there will be another public mass shooting in America.

As the mother of six daughters, these aren’t words I want to write. I should be able to send my kids off to school in the morning and have them return safely. And you should be able to go to school and walk through your neighborhoods without fear of gun violence.

Unfortunately, we’ve passed the threshold on this issue. We should have been acting along the way. Now we must go further than what we want to admit.

We need universal background checks. We need to ban bump stocks. We need to raise the age for gun ownership and explore a buyback program. Training, special license and recertifications should also be requirements.

Continue to advocate for issues that are important to you. We need your leadership.

I stand with you – “No more silence. End gun violence.”