Politics

Gillibrand: ‘I Should Have Done More’ To Change Gun Laws

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Phillip Stucky Contributor
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Democratic New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand confessed during a Monday town hall on MSNBC that she should have done more to combat gun laws during her time in the U.S. Senate.

“I regret, actually, not caring about other communities,” Gillibrand said about her time in office. “My community didn’t have the gun violence that other parts of the state had, and in fact, the biggest issue for upstate New York was hunting rights.”

“My mother didn’t just cook the Thanksgiving turkey, she shot the Thanksgiving turkey, so I came from a different lens, but what I regret is I should have cared more about ending gun violence in other places and so the first thing I did when I became a senator was met with families who lost their loved ones to gun violence,” she continued. (RELATED: 2020 Democratic Hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand Can’t Even Get Her Home Delegation To Back Her)

“When you meet a mother or father who has lost a child to gun violence, there is no way you will ever not answer them directly and say I will do something to end gun violence, and that’s what I did.”

Gillibrand formally announced she was running for president in the 2020 Democratic primary last week. A recent report revealed that one of the parents involved in a college entrance cheating scandal co-hosted a fundraiser for the rising Democrat. She was also one of the first Democrats to come out against former Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, a decision that cost her some sway with the party’s donor elite.