On the recordFebruary 25, 2019
We rise today to honor the lives that we lost to gun violence in Aurora, Illinois, earlier this month. This is, unfortunately, not the first time that we have mourned the unnecessary loss of life from gun violence. Eleven years ago, when I first took office, I inherited a community in mourning: 17 students were injured and 5 were killed in the Cole Hall mass shooting at Northern Illinois University. So I spent my first weeks and months in office doing what I could to help my community recover. Now, 11 years later, on February 15, the call went out from Aurora, Illinois: Workplace shooting at Henry Pratt. Active gunman. Officers down. More than 200 police units from across the western suburbs of Chicago responded to contain the situation. They were running toward the sound of gunfire, as they do countless times each day in our country.…





