Content warning: This email discusses deadly gun violence.

Friends,

I was in high school during Columbine, just a few states away in Minnesota.

I never could have imagined then that my three children would experience the same fear of gun violence I did a generation later.

If my generation had acted to stop gun violence instead of living with complacency, we wouldn’t continue to see tragic, preventable shootings like the ones in Uvalde and Buffalo.

Instead we’ve seen continuous inaction at the state and federal levels — and it has cost lives. Since Columbine, 311,000 students have experienced gun violence at school. This past Memorial Day weekend alone saw at least 12 mass shootings.

We can save lives if we pass commonsense reforms like enacting universal background checks and banning assault weapons, and prioritize investing in our communities instead of failed measures like militarizing police departments and putting more guns in schools.

That can happen if we organize for change, like my daughter Isra, who has rallied at the Minnesota State Capitol and in Washington, D.C., as a teenager to solve the problems her generation should have never had to inherit.

My daughter, Isra, at the March for Our Lives in D.C. in 2018.

I’ve mobilized around gun violence, too — joining a 24-hour sit-in on the Minnesota House floor to protest the House’s inaction on gun violence.

Sitting in with Raymond Dehn, Erin Maye Quade (who led the sit-in), and Mike Freiberg in 2018 as a member of the Minnesota House. Photo by Briana Bierschbach, MinnPost.

And Democrats have previously passed gun safety legislation in the U.S. House only for Senate Republicans to stall it, putting NRA contributions over human lives.

I will always believe that a better world is possible, and that includes a world without gun violence. We can take on the gun lobby and pass critical reforms, but only if we continue putting the pressure on legislators at every level of government.

In the coming days, we are going to vote on critical gun safety legislation in the House. Can you show your support for swift action by chipping in any amount to my campaign? I will fight every step of the way to make these urgent reforms a reality.

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In solidarity,

Ilhan Omar

 

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