United States Vice President Kamala Harris:
I want for you that you hold each other tight as a community, that you know that you have a whole nation who cares deeply about you and stands with you. This is a — an incredibly tight community. I know that. And this person will be brought to justice, but it’s not going to undo what happened.
And we — we’re here for you, and we stand with you. And of course, as we always say — because it is true — our prayers are with you.
The President and I and our administration have put all of the resources and will continue to put all of the resources that the Mayor and the Chief and others need in terms of the federal assistance. So the FBI and the ATF are here.
There’s a lot of healing that’s going to have to happen that is both physical and emotional. There is no question that this experience is something that is going to linger in terms of the trauma. And so, I’d like to urge all the families and all the individuals to do seek the support that you so rightly deserve.
And — and we’ll deal with what we need to deal with in terms of also, as we move forward, all agreeing that we’ve got to be smarter as a country in terms of who has access to what and, in particular, assault weapons. And we got to take this stuff seriously, as seriously as you are — because you have been forced to have to take it seriously.
The whole nation should understand and have a level of empathy to understand that this can happen anywhere, in any peace-loving community. And we should stand together and speak out about why it’s got to stop.
