In Miami, Kamala Harris calls for a total ban on assault weapons in the US.

The vice president of U.S, Kamala Harrisasked this Thursday in Miami a complete ban on the sale of assault weapons and a universal background check, and blamed lawmakers in Congress for their absence.”They don’t have the courage to step forward.”.

“To the assault weapons They are designed to kill a lot of people quickly and there is no reason for them to be on the streets in a civil society“Harris said this afternoon during a talk on the campus of Florida International University (FIU), as part of your university trip “Fight for our freedoms”, began this month.

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The vice president mentioned the massacre perpetrated in 2018 at the high school Marjory Stoneman Douglasin park (Florida), where a former student armed with a AR-15 rifle killed 17 people.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, two weeks after 17 people were killed in a shooting by former student Nikolas Cruz that left 17 dead and 15 injured on February 14, 2018. (Photo by RHONA WISE/AFP) (RHONA WISE) /)

One question, that of weapons salesthat is being manipulated, he said, by those people who try to force “make a false decision“between being in favor of Second amendment (the right to keep and bear arms) or “I want to take away everyone’s guns”.

“I’m for the Second Amendment, but that’s not what we’re saying. We need assault weapons bans, universal background checks and buy-back laws” he added.

But this situation, he encouraged the students who filled the FIU auditorium, will change when “everyone start voting“, why “I am sure“of what”When you vote you can make a difference on these issues” he noted.

In this context, he referred to one of the central points of his university career, the “intentional and total attack – in your opinion – on hard-won freedoms and rights,” an attack that requires, he said, the attention and leadership of college students.

“Extremist leaders” seek restriction of rights

And this is so, he continued, because the progress of U.S It depends on everyone’s commitmentthe expansion of rights, not their restriction“like some”Extremist leaders are trying to do this here in Florida”, he said in a veiled allusion to the state governor, the Republican Ron DeSantiswith whom he maintains a tough clash of ideas.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gestures while speaking in the Spin Room at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 23, 2023. (Photo by Alex Wroblewski/AFP) (ALEX WROBLEWSKI/)

“That’s why I’m taking this ride“, he stressed, by”Raise our voices and listen to our country’s leadersknowing that it doesn’t have to be this way”This situation of attempted erosion of freedoms, he stressed.

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He also referred to the presidential initiative to forgive up to US$20,000 to beneficiaries of the Pell Grantof which, he said, most Latino students are beneficiaries.

Although, “There is a political agenda to undo what we are trying to do and we will have to keep fighting“, he warned.

He also denounced, ahead of the 2024 elections, that “There are people now who are intentionally trying to make it difficult”the right to vote, as happens in Georgiawhere they passed a law that makes it illegal to give food and water to people waiting in line to vote.

Wave “hypocrisy” patent in Florida, charged again against DeSantis, where a law was passed that does not allow one million people who have served their sentences for serious crimes to vote.

“What happened to the concept of redemption?”Harris asked, to ensure that in Florida a large number of people who have served their sentences are prevented from exercising full citizenship rights.

He also addressed the controversy surrounding reproductive health, the woman’s right to abortion, to say that women have enough intelligence and capacity to make a decision of this type.”without your government telling you what to do”.

He accused “extremist leaders” across the country that have proposed and passed laws to criminalize health care providers (for performing abortions)” and that “establish significant prison sentences to punish women, making no exceptions even for rape or incest”.

In this sense, he attacked the 2023 state law signed by DeSantis, which restricts abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

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“Most women don’t even know they are pregnant at six weeks. Let’s go!exclaimed Harris, who will visit about a dozen campuses this month, including Historically Black Colleges (HBCUs), community colleges, and apprenticeship programs.

He did not leave aside the question of “climate crisis”, which he compared to a “existential crisis”, and the speed at which this is happening and causing the “loss of many of the vital resources that life provides us Earth”.

He spoke about the efforts made by The White House to promote a clean energy economy and what the vice president called “environmental justice”To support the needs of poor communities, immigrants, and people of color.

Source: Elcomercio