The high energy, “joy” heavy Democratic National Convention took a hard turn Thursday night into the stark testimony of victims of gun violence, tying Kamala Harris’ overarching campaign message into a plea for gun regulation.
A run of primetime speakers cast Harris as the only candidate who would take action against gun violence. Showing a clip of Harris responding to a mass shooting and using emotional first-hand accounts, Democrats highlighted an issue they believe is one of their strengths.
Rep. Lucy McBath, whose son was killed before her first run for Congress, joined victims of both mass and smaller-scale shootings. They were followed by Sen. Mark Kelly and his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who spoke about how she survived a shooting at a political event in 2011.
“Ours are stories of loss,” McBath said. “But make no mistake. Our losses do not weaken us. They strengthen our resolve.”
The speakers’ stories spanned years and took place in very different settings.
“I carry that horrific day with me. Twenty beautiful first-grade children and six of my beautiful colleagues were killed. They should still be here,” Abbey Clements of Newtown, Connecticut, who was a second-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School during the 2012 massacre, said to a standing ovation from the audience.
Melody McFadden talked about her niece, Sandy PaTrice Geddis Barnwell, who was shot in 2014 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Her murder remains unsolved.
“I got to handling business. I called relatives, the police, hospitals and I kept calling — voice steady, heartbeat pulsing — then I was connected to the coroner,” she said, describing what happened after her niece was shot.
Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was killed in 2022 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, along with 18 other students and two teachers, spoke to the personal nature of a national tragedy.
“Uvalde is national news. Parents everywhere reach for their children. I reach out for the daughter I will never hold again,” she said.
Kelly escorted Giffords to the stage. Giffords was shot in the head at a Tucson, Arizona, campaign event, ending her political career as she knew it. She was, in her own words, a “rising star,” but since then Kelly has taken on her mantle.
“I fought for my life and I survived. I learned to walk again. One step at a time. I learned to talk again, one word at a time,” Giffords said. “Kamala can beat the gun lobby, she can fight gun trafficking.”
Preventing gun violence is a core part of the Democrats’ party platform. It is not included in the GOP’s platform.
Harris heads the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the Biden administration. She touts as part of her record the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. The legislation, among other things, would increase the number of background checks on young adults from the ages of 18 and 21 and provide states with financial incentive to institute red-flag laws. The first gun-safety law in close to three decades was motivated, in part, by mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York.
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Tara Kavaler is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.