Subject: Hillary Clinton Pledges to Fight for Gun Reforms to Protect Communities
From: Hillary for America Press <[email-masked]>
To: Hillary for America Press <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 May 2016 22:06:37 -0400
List-Id: <nationalpress2016.hillaryclinton.com>

*Hillary Clinton Pledges to Fight for Gun Reforms to Protect Communities*

At the 3rd annual Circle of Mothers event hosted by Sybrina Fulton and
the Trayvon Martin Foundation, Hillary Clinton addressed about 50
mothers who have lost their children to gun violence and other
tragedies. Clinton vowed to continue to fight for gun reforms and ways
to reduce violence and prevent incidents that are costing lives in
communities all across the country. She also called out Donald Trump
for his dangerous ideas that would only hurt families and make our
children less safe. The Circle of Mothers gathering is meant to
empower women and ignite change.

*Below are Clinton's full remarks:*

​"​
Good evening.  What a great honor it is for me to be here with all of you,
and to have a chance to see some of the mothers that I’ve gotten to know
over the last months and to meet others of you who are here for this
weekend.  I think it’s fair to say that the program has already been
amazing.  Just here during dinner – and I know you had other sessions this
weekend – but here during dinner, I have to say that Rebecca Vaughns was
just astonishing. And Jill Tracey kept us all in line.   I don’t know if
you could notice where you were sitting, but she has on the coolest-looking
red tennis shoes – underneath that elegant, long, flowing black dress.  And
​Queene
 Thompson Brown spoke to our hearts. Just unleash that, because you have a
powerful message.

I want to thank
​La Vie
.  I want to thank Minister Wanda Johnson and Pastor Gregory Williams and
Kat Tynes.  Kat Tynes has on the highest high heels I think I’ve ever seen.
I was just knocked over when Kat came up here.  They sparkle, but they’re
like a foot high. I had to give up wearing high heels 10 years ago.  I am
so jealous.

But the sisterhood that is here is so overwhelming in its love, and I am
grateful to see all of you and it in action.  I want to thank Sybrina and
her entire family, who stand behind her, for bringing us together.
Trayvon’s parents, Sybrina and Mr. Tracy Martin, and his brother, Jahvaris,
and his grandmother – because as Sybrina said, she’s from a line of strong
women, and I’ve met Marion Evans, for the first time in South Carolina, and
am happy to see her again tonight – have demonstrated what it really means
to have a family in the worst of times.

I appreciate the elected officials who are here, including my longtime
friend, Congressman Alcee Hastings, who I’ve known a long, long time. And
Barbara Jordan and Dennis Moss and Oliver Gilbert and Dorothy Bendross
Mindingall.

But most of all, I thank all the mothers and fathers, but mostly the circle
of mothers, who are turning your grief into action, and so importantly,
reaching out to support other parents who face the unimaginable.

I’ve had the great privilege of getting to know Sybrina over the last
months.  Even before I met her, I knew something important about her.  Like
a lot of people, I watched – I watched in disbelief and horror – when her
son was killed.  But then I saw her talking about her love for Trayvon,
urging people who were devastated by his death to make America a more
peaceful place.  She was joined by Trayvon’s father.  I can remember seeing
that on television.  One reporter described them as
​'
models of grace and fortitude.
​'​

When I met Sybrina for myself, that’s exactly what I saw.  It takes a
special kind of person to endure a loss like all of you, and then find a
way to turn it into service.

That’s what Sybrina has done.  That’s what many of you have done.

Sybrina said,
​'​
​
This is not something I ever wanted to do,
​'​
 She said,
​'​
I can’t help Trayvon, but there are a lot of other Trayvon Martins I can
help.
​'​
 That’s true for all of us.  There are a lot of other young men and young
women we all can help.

You see, I believe we have a moral obligation to protect our children no
matter what ZIP code they live in – to reduce violence, especially gun
violence.  To stand up against systemic racism and to promote justice and
equality.  I believe we owe that to our children, and we owe it to the
parents who love their children more than anything, especially those whose
love persists after they were so tragically taken from them.

Sybrina and I were talking at the table about the weekend that has been
provided for the mothers who are here, and I had the great honor of meeting
each of the mothers, the “
​C​
ircle of
​M​
others,” before we came in.  Some lost their children to gun violence.
Others died after encounters with police, or because of domestic violence.
Each mother handed me a letter.  Actually, they put it in a basket – put it
in a basket that Sybrina’s mother, I think, made possible.  They handed me
that letter, and I’m going to read every single word of these letters,
because

each of the mothers is telling us something that we all need to hear, not
just about their tragedies, but about our country.

Something is wrong when so many young people just starting their lives are
dying.  Something is wrong when so many Americans have reason to believe
that our country doesn’t consider their children as precious and worthy of
protection as other children because of the color of their skins.
Something is wrong when so many parents live in fear that their child will
be hurt or killed, just for being a young black man in a hooded sweatshirt,
like Trayvon; or listening to music in a car, like Jordan Davis, whose
mother Lucy is here; or for standing in a park with her friends, like
Hadiya Pendleton, whose mother Cleo is here; or simply going to first
grade, like Ben Wheeler’s mother knows, a student at Sandy Hook Elementary
School – Ben’s mother Francine is here too.

Something is very wrong, my friends.  And this election gives us a chance
to keep trying to make it right.

I come here tonight as a mother and a grandmother.  I love my daughter and
my granddaughter more than anything, and I worry about them like every
mother does.  I want them always to be safe.  But I also come here as
someone who’s been fighting for children my entire life.  And I’m going to
keep talking about these issues every chance I get, because there’s nothing
more important than protecting our children.  If we
​ ​
fail at that, it really doesn’t matter what else we get right.

So we have got to face up to all of the barriers that are denying children
the opportunities they deserve, that enable people to see some children as
less than what they truly are – talented, beautiful, and beloved.  We’ve
got to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline that wrongly diverts too
many kids into the criminal justice system. We’ve even seen an uptick – a
significant uptick – in police involvement in school discipline, especially
in communities of color.  We’re seeing an overreliance on suspensions and
expulsions.  Some of you may remember that video of the girl in South
Carolina being thrown out of her desk and dragged across her classroom
floor by a school officer.  Classrooms should be safe places for all
children.  That should go without saying.

And yes, we need to continue to fight for criminal justice reform.  Our
legal system is often stacked against those who have the least power and
are the most vulnerable.  Let’s get back to that fundamental principle:
everyone benefits when there is respect for the law and when everyone is
respected by the law.  And this is actually an area where a lot of
Democrats and Republicans agree – we need to end the era of mass
incarceration; rebuild the bonds of trust between law enforcement and
communities; and do something about the horror, the tragedy of too many
young African Americans being killed by police or dying in custody.  The
mothers of Dontre Hamilton and Eric Garner are here tonight.  They, along
with Sandy Bland’s mother and so many others across the country, are doing
their part to make sure no one else’s children die like theirs did.  They
deserve our complete and total support.

And we need to protect the health of our children, and that includes their
mental health.  Nearly 17 million children in America experience mental
health problems. Some of those kids don’t get treatment.  They grow up to
adults, and then they cause harm to others.  We need to make sure the next
generation grows up in a country where there’s no shame or stigma, no
barriers to anyone seeking and needing mental health care.

And at long last, we must do something about the gun violence that stalks
communities and terrorizes families. This is on the minds of every one of
us here tonight as we remember all of the young people who have been lost.
This problem isn’t going away.  Even toddlers are getting their hands on
guns and shooting themselves or someone else.  There have been, by last
count, 23 cases of toddlers getting guns so far this year.  I don’t know
what more evidence anybody needs in our country to know that somebody has
gone terribly wrong.

We are smart enough and strong enough as a nation to figure out how to
protect the rights of responsible gun owners while keeping guns out of the
hands of domestic abusers, other violent criminals, gang members, the
severely mentally ill.  I know we can do this.  And despite all the
political noise, we are actually united on this issue.  The vast majority
of Americans support comprehensive background checks.  In fact, the
conservative pollster Frank Luntz found that 82 percent of gun owners and
74 percent of NRA members support background checks for anyone buying a
gun.  Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly support them.  So do leaders
in law enforcement.  So this isn’t a matter of building popular support.
We already have it.  This is a matter of making elected officials do their
jobs to keep our children safe.

Now, we know the gun lobby is powerful.  I believe it’s the most powerful
lobby in Washington.  And we know that some candidates will say or do
anything to keep them happy.  Just yesterday at the NRA’s annual
convention, Donald Trump said that in his very first hour as president,
heaven forbid, he would overturn President Obama’s actions to strengthen
background checks.  Remember, President Obama took those steps after the
massacres at Mother Emanuel in Charleston and Sandy Hook Elementary in
Newtown, Connecticut.

Then Mr. Trump went further.  He said that also on his first day in office,
he’d mandate that every school in America allow guns in classrooms.  Every
school, he said.  That idea isn’t just way out there, it’s dangerous.
 33,000 people die from guns every year, nearly 3,000 children and
teenagers among them.  Parents, teachers, and schools should have the right
to keep guns out of classrooms, just like Donald Trump does at many of his
hotels, by the way.

This is someone running to be president of the United States of America, a
country facing a gun violence epidemic, and he’s talking about more guns in
our schools.  He’s talking about more hatred and division in our streets,
even about more nuclear weapons in the world.  That’s no way to keep us
safe.

If you want to imagine what Trump’s America will look like, picture more
kids at risk of violence and bigotry.  Picture more anger and fear.  Ask
any of the mothers here tonight if they want to live in that kind of
America. Enough is enough. Unlike Donald Trump, I will not pander to the
gun lobby.  And we will not be silenced.  And we will not be intimidated.
As long as children anywhere are being killed by gun violence, we will keep
fighting for our kids because they deserve a president who stands up for
them and stands with the mothers here.  Their lives are valuable.

Now, there’s a lot more I could say tonight about what we need to do to
better serve our kids, from education to health care to jobs.  But here’s
the bottom line.  Anyone asking for your vote owes it to you to fully
grapple with the real challenges facing our families and communities.  We
owe it to you to listen and come up with solutions – not scapegoats,
solutions – that would make a difference in your children’s lives.  And to
the mothers and fathers who have lost children, we owe you our love, our
support, our gratitude, and our promise that we will carry the memories of
your sons and daughters in our hearts every day, just like you do.

One of the best experiences of this campaign for me has been getting to
know Mothers of the Movement, Sybrina and so many of the other women here
tonight.  They are turning their sorrow into a strategy and their mourning
into a movement.  I’ve had the opportunity to sit and listen as they talk
about their kids and their families. And I’ve seen how you gain strength
from each other.

That’s why tomorrow I hope you will take what you have gotten here this
weekend back to your communities, to your families, to your loved ones,
because it really does take a village.  It takes a village to raise a
child, to protect a child, to mourn a child, and to honor a child.  So
we’ve got to stand together and lift each other up and draw strength from
each other.  Running for president’s hard, I got to tell you.  But it’s
nothing like what I have seen the mothers do and what I have learned from
every one whom I have met.  Your courage and your commitment and your
leadership is inspirational to me.

I want to close with a passage from Scripture that means a great deal to
me, and I know has meant a great deal to Sybrina.
​'​
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own
understanding.  In all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths
straight.
​'​

We may never, never be able to understand the senseless violence that has
affected the lives in this room and so many others who you are standing for
across our country.  But there is a path ahead of us.  There is work for us
to do.  And it is up to us to do that work, and to walk that path, with
trust that progress is possible; with love for all our children, no matter
their race or background; and with the memory of those we’ve lost lighting
our way toward the future every child in this country deserves.  I am here
tonight to say thank you to this circle of mothers, and to say God bless
you all and God bless your families. Thank you so very much.
​"​

###

For Immediate Release, May 21, 2016
Contact: [email-masked]

PAID FOR BY HILLARY FOR AMERICA
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