Friends, this spring, I got a letter from a Virginia student. I want to share part of what she wrote to me. The student said: 

Hello Senator. I am terrified to go to school. I have lived in your state for six years, but I have never been more scared than I am when I go to school every day.
...
I’m supposed to be safe at school. Something needs to change. I’m not the only kid who feels this way. Why should I be scared to go to school?

Four days later, our country watched as Nashville became the latest community to mourn the unthinkable, with the lives of three nine-year-olds cut cruelly short and three adults senselessly killed.

When these tragedies happen -- like the senseless shooting in Lewiston, Maine just yesterday -- I find myself getting angry when I hear my colleagues in the Senate simply offer “thoughts and prayers.” Thoughts and prayers are meaningful, but it starts to sound very hollow when that is the response, and nothing more.

But let me be self critical. I often say, when the unthinkable happens yet again, that I’m heartbroken for the families, and that we need to pass meaningful legislation in Congress to stop it from happening again, like an assault weapons ban. But if we think that offering thoughts and prayers and nothing else is hollow, the truth is, saying that we should do an assault weapon ban -- when we know it’s not going to happen anytime soon -- begins to sound hollow, too.

Look -- I do think we need an assault weapons ban. We’ve had one in the past. We know it helps reduce gun violence. But we also know that there is zero chance in the near future that this governing body is going to get to 60 votes for that ban, or many other kinds of gun safety regulations that would make a student be less afraid.

Here is my challenge to myself and to all my colleagues in Congress: Ask yourself if we’ve let the debate around this important issue become stale and futile. Are there solutions and strategies that we’re not talking about, that we might be able to find some common ground on?

This youngster’s letter cries out to us, demanding that we find common ground. That we avoid complacency. That we not do nothing.

I don’t have the answers right now, but you better believe that I am committed to finding a way forward on this.

If you’re with me -- if you agree that we need to push past the hollow responses and find actions that are realistic to get done, please add your name to my petition right now and urge my colleagues in Congress to fight for our kids.

While I’m traveling around Virginia talking to people, I’m going to be focused on getting ideas. I’m going to be asking some young people -- and some teachers, and some parents of school kids -- if they have ideas for us, and if they think our political debate has grown stale. I eagerly await these conversations, because I know that there’s more we can do.

Thank you for reading, and if you have thoughts to share, please click here to submit them to my team.

-Tim Kaine

Paid for by Kaine for Virginia

Kaine for Virginia
P.O. Box 239
Alexandria, VA 22313
United States

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