“First, gun violence is not a new phenomenon. We live it daily in New Jersey — this week provided a stark and tragic reminder of this fact. And, while we will continue to do all that we can to make New Jersey America’s safest state, we need urgent and affirmative national action on commonsense gun safety by Congress. Second, John Kennedy’s legacy lives on across America and around the world. He remains my hero and, alongside my parents, is the reason I answered the call to public service. Particularly in times of division and anxiety in our nation and the world, we need JFK’s spirit and wisdom more than ever. As he said two years before he was elected president, ‘Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer.’

“May he continue to rest in peace and, in his memory, may we rise together to be the America we know we can be.”