Democratic Candidates for Tucson’s CD2 Congressional Seat Renew their Demand for Gun Safety

Democratic candidates for Congress in CD2:
Democratic candidates for Congress in CD2: Yahya Yuksel, Billy Kovacs, Ann Kirkpatrick, Mary Matiella, Bruce Wheeler, Barbara Sherry and Matt Heinz.

On the day when a teenage shooter killed 10 and injured 10 at a Texas school, all seven of the CD2 Congressional candidates renewed their demand for gun safety legislation.

The candidate forum took place on Friday, May 18, for the residents at an active-living retirement community in Tucson. The candidates are Yahya Yuksel, Billy Kovacs, Ann Kirkpatrick, Mary Matiella, Bruce Wheeler, Barbara Sherry and Matt Heinz.

Mary Matiella

“My heart is broken over the shooting in Santa Fe, Texas. That is horrible. One more time we are just beyond ourselves with the pain we feel.”

“I have a cousin who was murdered in her home in front of her children. The most vulnerable are the children in schools. Women in the US are 15 times more likely to be killed by a gun than in other developed countries. We have to do something big. All we want is sensible gun legislation. We’re not trying to take on the Second Amendment. We should keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. Why would you not do that?”

Ann Kirkpatrick

“Just today my heart was broken one more time because 10 families are not going to have their children home for dinner because of a school shooting today. I was a law clerk for Judge John Roll when he was shot and Gabby was injured. It was something I’ll never, ever get over. Enough is enough.”

“Preventing gun violence has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. It says people in the US have a right to bear arms and to have a well-regulated militia. What we have is a completely unregulated system, that we need to have regulated to keep our children and victims of domestic violence safe, and to keep terrorists from getting guns in our country.”

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4th year anniversary of shooting on January 8, 2011 (photos)

The tragic Tucson Tragedy happened 4 years ago on Saturday, January 8, 2011.  Here are photos taken this afternoon by freelance photographer Jon Scanlon of the memorial plaque on the boulder in front of the Safeway supermarket at the SE corner of Oracle/Ina.  Many people left lovely flowers today in remembrance of this mass shooting at this site.

safewayplaque

Six people died that day on that sidewalk outside the supermarket.  Let us not forget them:

Christina-Taylor Green, age 9,
Dorothy “Dot” Morris, age 76,
Judge John Roll, age 63,
Phyllis Schneck, age 79,
Dorwan Stoddard, age 76,
and Gabriel “Gabe” Zimmerman, age 30 (whom I knew).
Safewayplaqueflower
A Prayer gathering was held today at the Northminster Presbyterian Church on Tucson Blvd/Ft. Lowell (where Phyllis’ funeral was held in 2011), and a Day of Kindness & Remembrance was scheduled  at Tohono Chul Park. Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild rang the fire bell at Tucson Fire Central on Cushing Street in downtown Tucson at 10:10 a.m. this morning, at the exact time of the shooting.
Two events tonight at 7 p.m. —
Memorial services at St. Philips in the Hills,  4440 N. Campbell Ave. and a Memorial poetry reading at the UA Poetry Center, 1508 E. Helen  St.
Former LD 2 Congressman Ron Barber who was shot twice on Jan. 8, 2011 will be reading at the latter event.  Mayor Rothschild will be at the Memorial service.

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