Vice President Kamala Harris pledges gun safety, praises educators at National Education Association assembly

Less than 40 miles away from Highland Park, Illinois, where seven people were killed in a shooting at a July 4 parade, Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday addressed the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly, where she pledged to fight for more reasonable gun laws.

The July 4 shooting occurred while “our nation is still mourning the loss of those 19 babies and their two teachers in Uvalde,” Harris said, which was “the most recent reminder of the risks that our children and our educators face every day.”

“Teachers should not have to practice barricading a classroom; teachers should not have to know how to treat a gunshot wound,” Harris said.

Harris also commended educators for their hard work during the pandemic, as well as the National Education Association’s political organizing throughout its history.  She and President Joe Biden are “determined to fight for a future where a teacher’s wage can provide for a family,” Harris said, as well as a future where “you never again have to spend your own money on school supplies to meet your students’ needs” and “where our teachers can educate our children with the resources, with the safety and the respect that you deserve.”

“We are clear: When we do that, we can be sure that every child can reach their God-given potential,” Harris said.

Harris also took jabs at Republican lawmakers in her address for refusing ” to keep assault weapons off our streets and out of our classrooms,” noting that they “fought against raising (educator) pay” as well as voted against extending the child tax credit.

“I think that these extremist so-called ‘leaders’ need to attend a civics lesson,” Harris said. “I actually think it would benefit us all if they sat in your classroom for a few days to remember how a democracy works, to remember what freedom stands for, and to remember what jobs they were elected to do.”