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Friends, on Gun Violence Awareness Day, I want to share part of a letter I got from a Virginia student — because it’s worth your time to read it. 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.
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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?
Just days after I got this letter, our country watched as yet another community mourned the unthinkable, and the lives of three nine-year-olds were cut cruelly short in Nashville, Tennessee.
When these tragedies happen, I find myself getting angry at my colleagues in the Senate who 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 less afraid.
As we mark Gun Violence Awareness Day and reflect on this scourge in our society, 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. [[link removed]]
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While I’m traveling around Virginia talking to people, I’m focused on getting ideas. I’m 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 deeply value 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. [[link removed]]
-Tim Kaine
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