Powerful clip of Kamala Harris comforting student scared about gun violence resurfaces
A resurfaced clip of Kamala Harris reassuring a student concerned about gun crime in schools has gone viral. (Kamala Harris/Facebook)
A resurfaced clip of Kamala Harris reassuring a scared student about gun violence has gone viral ahead of the US presidential election.
In September 2019, Harris shared a clip of her comforting the student. She captioned it: “Leaders in congress who fail to have the courage to act on gun violence are traumatising an entire generation of students.”
In the video, which went viral on X/Twitter on Tuesday (8 October), attracting more than 10.9 million views, a female student can be seen thanking Harris for her work in high schools. “I was scared every day,” the pupil says.
Harris responds: “So, here’s the thing: you’re right to feel that way but you also have to remember that we’re all in this together. You always have to remember that you’re not alone, do you hear me?”
The girl responds emotionally: “I just don’t way to die,” to which Harris continues to reassure them: “No baby, you’re not going to die”.
The pupil then says she feels safe with Harris who comforts them further by saying: “We’re going to take on the people who are failing to have courage. We’re going to do this.”
So far in 2024, there have been more than 400 mass shootings in the US, which the Gun Violence Archive defines as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed. There were 656 last year.
Some of the deadliest mass shootings in US history have involved the LGBTQ+ community. In 2016, 49 people lost their lives and 53 were left wounded when a gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Following the tragedy, then president Donald Trump claimed the massacre could have been prevented if more people had guns.
Harris recently admitted to owning a firearm after Trump claimed she would “confiscate everybody’s gun” if she becomes president. She is arguing for tougher laws and supports a ban on assault weapons, which she described as “designed to be a tool of war”.
In November 2022, five people were killed and at least 25 injured by 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich at Colorado LGBTQ+ venue Club Q. In June this year, he was sentenced to 55 concurrent life sentences to run consecutive to 190 years in prison, after admitting five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder. He also pleaded no contest to two hate crimes, one a felony and the other a misdemeanour.
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