Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said Monday in CNN’s “Newsroom” that “Congress needs to take action” on the gun law in light of the shooting at the Independence Day parade in Highland Park.
At least six people were killed, and nearly two dozen others were seriously injured.
Lieutenant Colonel Victor Blackwell asked, “Congressman, you say this is your community, tell us quickly, if you want, about Highland Park.”
Schneider said, “Highland Park is a community, one of the northern suburbs of Chicago. It’s a tight-knit community. On this parade today, every year, thousands of people gather to celebrate, standing side by side in honor of our nation’s birthday and just being a part of the parade. There are floats of High school teams, the library, and the entire community come together. It’s like communities across the country were celebrating the Fourth of July. The fact that an individual, described as a young man, decided to take out a gun, which is said to be an offensive weapon and literally destroys the heart of our society. They are killed, and the families, they will never recover. They will carry the pain of their loss with them through the generations. The wounded will carry these injuries with them for the rest of their lives. The entire community, we will come together. It is a strong community, and we will find the strength to support each other, but it will take time to recover and heal.”
He added, “Like many other communities across the country that suffer from gun violence, we need help, and Congress needs to take action, whether it’s global backgrounds, things that 90% of the country supports, global background checks, or making trafficking Of guns across state lines is illegal. Direct things we can do that can honor the Second Amendment but also keep our children, our schools, our theaters, our communities safer, and we have to act, and we have to act soon.”
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