Colorado senator calls for gun reform in powerful speech
“Boulder will heal but this scar will always be there — my daughter’s generation will always bear the burden of a national government that did nothing to protect them. They and the children that I used to work for at the Denver Public Schools, they carry a burden that we didn’t carry,” the Colorado Democrat said, referencing his previous work as superintendent of the school district.
“They have grown up with a reasonable fear that they will be shot in their classrooms or in their schools or at a movie theater or in any public place. I didn’t grow up in an America with more gun-related deaths than virtually any country in this world, and we can’t accept it for their America,” he continued.
Bennet stressed Wednesday that gun violence has been a longstanding issue for both his state and the country, speaking to the current political climate in calling for gun regulations.
Lawmakers’ failure to act, he said, “has helped create these conditions, and we can’t wait any longer. The Senate needs to act. There’s nobody else to act but the United States Senate.”
“The shootings at Columbine High School happened right before my oldest daughter was born, Caroline Bennet,” Bennet said. “She’s 21 years old, and her entire generation has grown up in the shadow of gun violence, something none of us had to do.”
Bennet, a moderate Democrat and former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, is up for reelection in 2022. While the seat is not seen as particularly vulnerable in light of Colorado having trended blue, Democrats are still monitoring the race, which could potentially see gun control emerge as a key issue.
“I’ve spent the past day learning about the victims of this terrible crime and I want America to know what extraordinary human beings we’ve lost in my state,” Bennet said, tearing up while recounting one woman’s account of how grateful she was that her father, who was killed in the shooting, could walk her down the aisle at her wedding last year.
“Officer Talley and these other folks represent the best of Colorado, and we certainly owe Officer Talley a debt of gratitude we’ll never be able to repay,” Bennet said, adding that “my heart goes out to all of the families and the entire community of Boulder. We have endured too many tragedies as a state. So many other states are the same, here.”
CNN’s Amir Vera, Jason Hanna and Madeline Holcombe contributed to this report.
