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Welcome back to La Vota.
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We've been covering issues that are important in this election.
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And today we're talking about gun violence right now.
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Gun violence is the leading cause of death for Children in America
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Last week, we asked our audience to send us any
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personal stories about how gun violence has affected them.
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Kimberly Rubio told us her story and we like to share it
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with you. My name is Kimberly Rubio.
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And my 10 year old daughter,
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Lexi was watching a movie at Rob Elementary in Uvalde Texas when
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an 18 year old armed with an assault weapon,
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walked into her school and murdered her 18 classmates and two teachers
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On the morning of her death,
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Lexi received the Good Citizen Award.
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We celebrated what would have been Lexi's 13th birthday on Sunday at
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the cemetery leaving her that night was probably the hardest.
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Goodbye since the day we buried her.
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I think the first year you're really numb,
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but the second year it's just all coming to and it's so
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difficult to process that.
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We're never going to see her again.
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We're never gonna hear her.
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I wonder what she would be interested in now,
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who her friends would be if she would have played volleyball.
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Like she always wanted to when she got to seventh grade,
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most interested in how she would have reacted to this campaign.
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Because I can remember when Biden defeated Donald Trump,
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we were in Conan and walking along the river and I snapped
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a photo of my three daughters and I remember tagging it as
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the futurist female because they were so excited to see the first
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ever vice president be a woman.
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And I know that I know when Kamala Harris wins,
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I'll be out there at her gravesite telling her all about it
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Now, today we're looking to have Kimberly on the line
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Kimberly. Thank you so much for joining us.
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I'm so sorry for your loss and I'm a recent parent and
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hearing Lexi's story definitely got me a little choked up.
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So thank you again for sharing Les's story.
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Thank you for having me and allowing me the opportunity to share
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Lexi's story. Why do you think it's important to share Lexi's
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story with a Comunita?
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It's important to share Lexi's story because I remember my life before
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I remember watching news unfold of yet another mass shooting,
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holding my kids a little bit tighter,
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a little bit longer and not even being able to imagine what
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those parents were going through.
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And now I'm on the other side and my only fault was
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leaving my daughter at school something moms do every morning all across
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this country without a second thought.
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So I need parents to be aware and to be voting for
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gun sense candidates before they're directly impacted by gun violence themselves.
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What changes do you hope to see moving forward in this country
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The election of gun sense candidates this November but also the
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continued work of the first ever White House Office of Gun violence
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prevention, safe storage laws,
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red flag laws, universal background checks.
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We also have Vanessa Gonzalez VP of government and political affair at
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Giffords, an anti gun violence advocacy group to chat with us
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today, Vanessa. Thank you for joining us.
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What are some actionable changes to help protect our Children from gun
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violence? One of the first that we have to just name
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and I know everyone has heard this a lot,
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you got to vote for gun safety candidates.
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You have to get out there.
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The reality is is that Latinos die at twice,
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nearly twice the level by gun violence across the nation than others
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So we are also in particularly losing our men starting at
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age 15. They have a higher rate of death by gun
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and that all comes to about 13 Latino deaths per day.
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So this is our issue and we need to demand that people
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start talking about it and do something about it and then hold
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them accountable once they're elected into office because again,
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And so we need to make sure that they are moving on
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our priorities. Are there any programs right now that can help
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fight for gun safety?
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Yeah, so there's a ton of policies that we can think
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about., Kim mentioned a few and I want to
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again, second our support for the Office of Gun Violence
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Prevention. It is the first that we've ever had and the
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people who staff it are phenomenal and have lost people to gun
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violence and have actually been victims of gun violence themselves.
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And last week, they just hosted with Kim and I were
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lucky enough to be a part of the first conversation about the
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impact of gun violence specifically on the Latino community.
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And we've never seen that before.
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So this is when you think about the differences in the policies
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like this is real and people are listening to us.
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Yeah, it seems like there's some kind of again,
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hope especially for Latinos.
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Kimberly, has there been any statements from Donald Trump or
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Kamala Harris have affected you this election with regard to school shootings
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Donald Trump said get over it.
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JD Vance has said that shootings are a fact of life.
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I will never get over the death of my daughter and I
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do not accept Children being gunned down in classrooms.
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And throughout Donald Trump's campaign,
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I have been reminded of the El Paso Walmart shooting which was
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carried out by a gunman who echoed the hateful rhetoric that Donald
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Trump has towards Latinos.
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And this is something that he continues today when he says things
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like immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country.
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But there's hope with Harris and Waltz.
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I have personally met with Harris on multiple occasions and she is
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sympathetic of Lexi's story and eager the the fight,
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eager to continue the fight to end gun violence in this country
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So I stand with Harris for Lexi Vanessa.
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Can you speak on how an assault weapon ban could help an
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assault weapon ban means that you would not be able to have
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these weapons of war around streets.
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Right? There is no need.
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There's a lot of qualifications that go into exactly what qualifies as
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an assault weapon by law,
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but it is clear that it has one purpose and that is
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during war times, there's no reason a teenager should be able
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to have access to it.
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There's really no reason for them to be on the streets.
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Are there any options for addressing the trauma after gun violence?
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So some of what we have seen is through the mental health
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investments that have been made by Biden and Harris and Champions by
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the Heritage Administration. So there's additional funding,
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a couple of a million dollars into the substance abuse and mental
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health services. So at the federal level,
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which goes down to clinics,
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there's also gonna like I said,
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an influx of funds for funding in schools and how to support
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Children. My daughter had a active shooter drill just
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this morning and because of various reasons,
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it's really traumatizing for her.
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Right? But her school thankfully has social workers and therapists
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on site to help kiddos who have some.
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it's just really hard for them to process any final thoughts
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you two want to deliver to the audience before the election.
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Nobody wants to take your guns away at Giffords and the partners
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I work with, we believe in the second amendment.
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I'm from Texas. We hunt,
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we do the whole thing,
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right? Nobody wants to take your guns away.
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But there is a rational way to approach guns and gun safety
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There's, it doesn't have to be an either or so
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I think to hear the vice president say,
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I don't want to take your gun away.
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That was really helpful and it is true.
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There is not this big conspiracy to do that.
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There are a lot of issues on the ballot,
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but the priority should be our children's safety.
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They are our future.
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So I urge you to get out there to vote to take
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Lexi with you when you vote Kimberly.
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Once again, thank you so much for sharing Lexi's story and
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Vanessa, thank you for your work.
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Appreciate it. I honestly do II I can't.
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Thank you enough. Thank you.
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Bye. Make sure you go out and vote for what matters
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on November 5th. This video is brought to you by Harris
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Walt's campaign reminding you to go to I will vote.com to find
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your polling place and make a plan to vote by November 5th
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