UPDATED 6:07 p.m.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – One of Illinois’ two U. S. Senators says there is no reason for anyone to have an AR 15, or other similar types of weapons, anywhere but on the battlefield.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, speaking Thursday on the Senate Floor, says she’s been thinking about that a lot since last week’s fatal mass shooting in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.
“The first thing I thought, when I heard the audio of last week’s tragedy, was that it sounded like war,” said Duckworth (D-IL). “Because the last time I heard the sound of gunfire that rapid and that many rounds going off on the Fourth of July, was when I was serving in Iraq. I never thought I’d hear that on this holiday again, let alone on U. S. soil.”
Duckworth is a double-amputee because of injuries she sustained in Iraq. She says some of her colleagues would rather listen to a group other than the Highland Park and Uvalde, Texas mothers who recently rallied on the capitol.
“I want you to explain to them why the dollars that you get from the NRA are worth their pain, their tears, their tragedy,” Duckworth told Senators. “Explain how that campaign contribution is worth this endless cycle of blood and death. Explain how your gun lobby phantom campaign funds are worth another parent having to bury their first grader in their favorite pair of Converse sneakers.”
Duckworth says she can’t get the image out of her mind of the young boy who survived the Highland Park mass shooting last week, while his parents both perished. She says she rushed July 4 to an emergency command center as authorities learned about that boy. She had been at another suburban parade at the time.
