Beto O'Rourke on Gun Violence Prevention at the 2020 Democratic Debate

Here's how we had that conversation in Texas. I shared with them what I learned from those students who survived the Santa Fe High School shooting. A young student named Bree, her friend Marcel who survived another shooting, the mother of a victim who lost her life, Rhonda Hart. They talked about universal background checks where you close every loophole. We know that they save lives. Talked about ending the sales of assault weapons into our communities. Those weapons of war were designed to kill people as effectively and as efficiently as possible. They should belong on the battlefield and not in our communities. Red flag laws so that if someone poses a danger to themselves or to someone else, they're stopped before it's too late. And what I found in each one of those 254 counties is that Democrats and Independents and Republicans, gun owners and non-gun owners alike, agreed. But this effort must be led by the young people that you referenced at the beginning of this issue. Those students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas led the charge here in Florida and they've been able to change those laws. They're making our democracy work, ensuring that our values and our interests and our priorities are reflected in the laws that we pass.