On Wednesday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke to mourners at a vigil for the victims of a shooting which killed at least two students and injured 17 more at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Omar calls for a change to gun laws during her speech.
00:00good evening everyone I said that to someone earlier as I was walking in the
00:12neighborhood and he looked at me and he said nothing is good Congresswoman and I
00:21felt that this morning when I woke up I saw the news one of my staffers sent me
00:29and as I do with any gun violence I forward it to my eldest daughter who's
00:38been particularly active in ending gun violence in our country and she quickly
00:50ran into my room and she said mom did you know the kids were praying when they
00:56got shot at and we both just stood there and that hit hard because you hear
01:08politicians when tragedies like this take place call for prayer because we all
01:16understand the power of prayer to heal to comfort to uplift but the kids were
01:28praying when they were assassinated so what does that tell us that tells us that
01:37there is something fundamentally broken in our society there is something
01:45fundamentally broken and as my brother Keith Ellison said we don't get to have
01:52thoughts without taking action we don't get to pray without uplifting others and it
02:01is important as this community comes together that we do yes pray for the
02:09mad families that have lost their precious angels this morning and yes we pray for
02:18the families that are currently in the hospital wishing and praying for recovery but we
02:30also as the principal said pray and walk because that calls us to take action to end the thing that
02:43continuously makes this country unique in being able to mourn the death of their
02:49children and carry on as if nothing has happened or as if not there is nothing that
02:55they can do many nations around the country have been visited with this tragedy but
03:02they recognize that they had a power to change in order to make sure that this
03:08tragedy that tragedy wouldn't visit their communities again what makes us so
03:15helpless how can we call ourselves great as a nation if we cannot protect the most
03:23the most precious which is our children our future
03:34on the anniversary of Columbine when my daughter let a school walkout she visited
03:40me as a state legislator and she said mom you were in high school when Columbine
03:45happened if you guys did something we wouldn't have to have a walkout nearly
03:5320 years later and so it is up to us to make sure this tragedy does not visit any other
04:05community in this country ever and we do that by reminding reminding folks that you can change whatever
04:13laws that you want in Minneapolis you can change whatever the laws that you want in Minnesota but if we do not
04:21change the laws of these United States of America none of our killed kids are going to be safe
04:27because Minnesota is not a country Minnesota is part of a union the people who have access to guns
04:39around around this country are our neighbors they don't get to have a passport and come in here they can just drive
04:46so this fallacy that we make ourselves believe that because we live in this great Minnesota that we are protected is a fallacy
05:00because it is going to take national protection for all of our kids in these United States to be protected and I am committed so as everyone you heard from in pushing for that on a national level
05:14but I hope I hope that commitment gets to be shared by the other leaders in our nation a commitment that they are going to love our children more than they love their guns
05:21that it is important that we are free from the violence
05:22from the violence of guns in this country and that we're free from the violence of guns in this country and that we are free from the violence of guns in this country.
05:37But I hope I hope that commitment gets to be shared by the other leaders in our nation.
05:38their guns that it is important that we are free from the violence of guns in
05:47this country and that we are free to see our children become adults and raise
05:56their children because we owe it to them as the adults who made it from children
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