Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, kicked off a campaign event in New Hampshire by offering condolences to the victims of a school shooting in Georgia.
She also described the shooting that killed four and injured nine others at Apalachee High School in Barrow County as a “senseless tragedy” and echoed President Joe Biden’s calls for gun control.
“It’s just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive,” she said. “It’s senseless.”
Her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, released a statement on social media offering condolences and rebuking the alleged assailant, a 14-year-old now facing murder charges.
“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” he wrote. “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
In New Hampshire, a crowd had gathered at a brewery to hear Harris’ outline a policy proposal to cut taxes for small businesses. But she said she was going off script to address the events in Georgia and the “epidemic of gun violence.”
Harris spoke about meeting with young people attending colleges, universities and trade schools across the country who recounted how the threats of campus violence made an impact on their lives.
“One of the things I asked every time I went to the auditorium with these young leaders — students — and I asked them, ‘Raise your hand if at any point between kindergarten and 12th grade you had to endure an active shooter drill,’ ” she said.
Almost every hand would be raised, Harris said. She acknowledged the students in the New Hampshire crowd who had also raised their hands.
She said gun violence prevention is one of the many issues at stake with this year’s election.
“Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big, beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of the classroom,” she said. “It does not have to be this way, does not have to be this way.”
