NORTHAMPTON — Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren addressed the tragedy of the Orlando nightclub shootings before a speech at the World War II Club in Northampton Sunday afternoon.
“We’re here today on a very sad day,” she said, noting that the “act of terror” comes right in the middle of Pride celebrations throughout the country. “Our hearts go out to the families of those who were killed and injured, also to the community in Orlando, also to the LGBT community,” she said.
Just yesterday the senator was in Boston wearing a rainbow feathered-boa in the city’s own Pride parade.
“I don’t march in the Pride parade,” she said. “I dance in the Pride parade.
“It’s a celebration, and yet we wake up this morning to the reminder of how much hate there still is out there.”
Warren said “the frustration over why we don’t make a deeper inquiry into how people get guns and how much that puts all of us at risk continues to grow.”
She added that the Senate’s recent efforts for “more sensible restrictions on access to guns” had been blocked by Senate Republicans.
“It is hard to have hope in this Senate that we will make any significant change, but I’ll say this — that is what elections are about.”
She expects the issue of how “we make ourselves safer” will come up again in the 2016 elections.
“People will have to decide — do we want to be a country where everyone is armed or do we want to be a country that takes some sensible measures in dealing with guns,” she questioned.