“My heart breaks for the victims of today’s shootings in Odessa and Midland, Texas. It is perverse that we live in a society where gun violence and mass shootings continue to claim American lives with such outrageous regularity. It is unthinkable that 26 more people were shot today and lives were taken in a mass shooting — including a state trooper and a 17 month old child — because our country has not done more to stop this violence. It’s unacceptable that untold numbers of communities elsewhere were victimized by gun violence today too.

“We are not powerless to act. We can stop this carnage by passing commonsense laws, like gun licensing, that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people who should not have them. I will never give up on the fight to change an unacceptable status quo protected by the corporate gun lobby and the NRA that keeps children and families across our country living in fear that they will be the next victims.”