- There is no part of American life today that is completely safe from gun violence. And yet, it doesn't have to be that way. When I decided I would run for Senate, I started meeting with a lot of different people, and I remember Kim Oden who was a pastor who told me about her son Steven.
He was 13 years old. He was out on the sidewalk. He was shot.
And I remember, as she spoke thinking about what it's like to lose a child, and then making the very determined decision not to let that moment turn into hate but that she was determined that she would make change in honor of Steven's memory. Within days after I was elected, I was told there was gonna be State of the Union and you get to bring exactly one guest, and I picked up the phone, and called Kim, and asked her if she'd come as my guest to the State of the Union to hear President Obama speak to the nation, and that both of us would urge him to say something about gun violence because we have to make change in this country. This is the time we can make democracy work.
We can reduce gun violence. We can pass sensible gun legislation and we can make all of us safer. We just have to have the courage to do it.
