Politics
Mark Kelly hopes Florida high schoolers’ calls to end gun violence will move Congress
Mark Kelly on gun control efforts
The retired NASA astronaut became a leader in preventing gun violence after his wife Gabby Giffords was severely injured by a deranged shooter in 2011.
Retired astronaut and gun-control activist Mark Kelly on Sunday again urged Congress to address the issue of gun violence, saying survivors of the recent Florida high school massacre calling for a national day or awareness should be a wake-up call on Capitol Hill.
“These kids are incredibly articulate. And some members of Congress are good at not listening. To have high school kids calling for change, it should matter. And I hope in society this will make a difference,” Kelly told “Fox News Sunday” minutes after five students from Florida’s Stoneman Douglas High School said on the show that they are trying to organize nationwide demonstrations for March 24.
“This is a political issue,” he said. “We need to have a vote.”
Kelly is a gun owner but has called for lawmakers to change laws to prevent and stop gun violence in America. He is married to former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Gifford, who survived a January 3, 2007, assassination attempt that resulted in a brain injury.
In the Parkland, Fla., shooting Wednesday, the FBI acknowledged that the agency had received tips about the alleged gunman but that no follow-up occurred. Seventeen people, including 14 students, were killed in the attack.
Kelly said that Florida law enforcement has very little tools to prevent such shootings, but that some states have in fact been “instrumental” in making changes.
“There is a short and abbreviated process to take the firearm away if one alerts authorities that an individual could be a threat,” he said. “That myth you can’t stop it isn’t true.”
Kelly didn’t appear to take an unequivocal stance on whether assault weapons, like the one used in the Florida shooting, are the real problem.
“Most murders, suicides are committed with handguns,” he said. “But when an individual goes into a school or another place with the intent to kill, they can kill a lot of people much more quickly.”
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Politics
Harris implores Black Americans to get Covid vaccines despite ‘righteous skepticism’
Vice President Kamala Harris addressed concerns that some Black Americans have had about Covid-19 vaccines, encouraging them to get the shot despite historical skepticism of the medical field.
“We must speak truth about the history of medical testing in this country,” Harris said in an interview with MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton.
“We must be honest about the fact that people have a righteous skepticism about how it has been used, how it has been tested and on whom it will be used,” Harris said.
The U.S. has a long record of unethical medical experimentation on Black Americans, from non-consensual testing on slaves to forced sterilization during the early 20th century and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. As NBC News has reported, experts have cautioned that this history, along with broader health care disparities in the modern era, has led to a distrust of the vaccine‘s safety.
Harris pointed to her own experience receiving the Covid vaccine to build trust in others.
“I got vaccinated,” she said. “I can tell you first of all that these vaccines are safe. It will save your life. There is a Black woman, Dr. Kizzy Corbet, who was part of the team of scientists who created this vaccine and it will save your life.”
“So, get your vaccination when it is your turn,” Harris said.
But the vaccines’ chaotic rollout, including supply shortages and disruptions with distribution due to winter storms, has created widespread accessibility issues.
The Biden administration recently purchased 200 million doses, and it doubled in distribution numbers last week, sending two million doses to 7,000 pharmacies across the country with its Federal Retail Pharmacy Program. The last five weeks have seen a nearly 70 percent increase in vaccine distribution.
Harris visited a local pharmacy and program participant in Washington D.C. Thursday morning, where she also addressed vaccine skepticism.
“There have been many theories about populations that are experiencing vaccine hesitancy for legitimate reasons that are based on historical experience that we should never forget,” Harris said.
Harris’ interview with Sharpton airs in full on Saturday.
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