Friends -

Once again, gun violence has forced its way into our schools, leaving devastation, trauma, and tragedy in its wake.

Like all of you, my heart is broken for the 19 young kids and 2 teachers who were killed on Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. We mourn them and their families, and a community that will never be the same again.

Parents should not have to fear for their children’s lives when they send them to school each morning, and kids should not have to grow up thinking this could happen to them.

How many more of these tragedies must occur until we actually do something about it? How many more parents must suffer the unimaginable pain of losing a child? How many more lives must be lost?

Enough is enough. We cannot accept a country where gunfire can ring out at any moment, whether it’s in a classroom in Uvalde, a grocery store in Buffalo, a nightclub in Orlando, a movie theater in Colorado, or anywhere else.

This is a never-ending nightmare that our country and our government keep allowing to happen, and it must end.

The simple fact is that we can stop so many of these massacres from ever occurring by abolishing the filibuster and passing federal, comprehensive gun safety legislation that will save lives.

Universal background checks, mandatory waiting periods, banning ghost guns, ending immunity for the gun industry and weapons manufacturers — these common sense policies are supported by the majority of people across the political spectrum, and are all already on the books in New York State.

Democrats in Washington have the power to enact all of it at the federal level right now — so long as they have the political courage to do so.

I promise you that I’ll do everything I can in this fight.

In solidarity,

Alessandra Biaggi