President Joe Biden was present at a national vigil for victims of gun violence on Wednesday, over 10 years after more than a dozen children and six teachers lost their lives to gun violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
“Together, we made some important progress: the most significant gun law passed in 30 years, but still not enough,” said President Biden, reiterating his call for banning assault weapons and other “common sense” legislation.
“I know that feeling,” said the 80 year old president, who lost his own son, Beau, to cancer. “It’s like a black hole in the middle of your chest that you’re being dragged into and you don’t know if there’s ever a way out.”
Joe Biden became the first president to attend the National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence, which has honored over 1 million gun violence victims since the December 14, 2012, shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The president said attendees had turned “pain into purpose” as he highlighted his administration’s accomplishments on guns thus far and assured the hundreds in the packed room that his work was far from done.
After Jackie Hegarty, a Sandy Hook survivor and rising senior at Newton High School, introduced him, the president hugged her.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also spoke at the event, criticizing lawmakers who oppose gun reform.
“As we say to our colleagues, your political survival is nothing compared to the survival of our children,” said the Democrat House Speaker. “How can you not see that and take the hard vote?”
Families from Uvalde, where 19 students along with two teachers were killed in a mass shooting earlier this year at Robb Elementary School on May 24, were also among those present at the event.
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill was packed with many of the top gun reform activists in the country, including the Newtown Action Alliance alongside the survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
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