Melissa Harris-Perry: It's the Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry.
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: I am Congresswoman Robin Kelly, the Congresswoman of the 2nd congressional district of Illinois.
Melissa Harris-Perry: In 2012, Robin Kelly was elected to Congress. Her district, the Illinois 2nd includes parts of Southside Chicago, marred by what can feel like unrelenting gun violence. She's been a champion of gun reform since the moment she arrived in the house. She now serves as chair of the congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. Way back in 2014, representative Kelly released a gun violence report. She told me just how much things have changed, or not since then.
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: Unfortunately, things have not changed that much. As you probably know, we've passed pieces of legislation in the house that we can't seem to get passed in the Senate, universal background checks, closing the Charleston loophole so that it would be a longer period of time when someone wants to buy a gun that they can just get the gun, like what happened in Charleston, it wasn't a definitive no, so he was sold the gun, but then it came back a few days later that he should not have had the gun. There has not been much change since that 2014 report, in fact, the last couple of years, it's gotten worse in many places.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Indeed this point about things having gotten worse, and over the course of the show, today we're really talking about mass shootings as we're marking the anniversary of Parkland, and we're thinking about mass shootings, particularly mass school shootings. In fact, that's a relatively narrow view of gun violence.
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: Definitely. You're speaking to my heart because I think that's the voice that I carry to Congress that we always spoke about mass shootings, not that they are not absolutely tragic. We used to do moments of silence, we'd stand up, sit down then we would do nothing. I brought to Congress where I represent in other places, people die every day. They may not die with anybody else, but it's someone's child, or mother, or father, or cousin, and we never talk about that. We talk about it more now. That was one of the impetus' for mass shootings and for individuals dying every day on the streets, I call it a slow motion massacre.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Indeed. As you were saying, we would stand up and sit down, and even as you said that, in my head, I could see that image of you there with the late Congressman John Lewis sitting on the floor of the house of representative because you all had gotten to a point where you're like, this must change, we must do something. I can remember feeling at that moment like, ah, maybe this is finally it, but then-
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: It wasn't. It wasn't it because too often people don't even think about it until it happens close to them. It happens over there when people say, "I can't believe it happened in this area," but you can believe it happened in my area, but you can't believe it happened. People realize it more and more, but basically we cannot get it past. It's not just about universal background checks and things like that, and the Build Back Better piece of legislation. We have $5 billion for violence prevention and it was about investing in communities and neighborhoods and programs that are already in existence and proving themselves to be worthy and effective. Again, as we couldn't get that passed either, but we're not giving up on it.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Talk to me a little bit about why. Some of what you just described are things that public opinion polls have shown us for two decades, that the vast majority of Americans gun owners included, by the way, I'm a gun owner, and across the ideological spectrum, across both parties support. What is it that's standing in the way of some of these very common sense, basic measures?
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: I do think that gun owners need to make their voices heard more. Just like the head of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force is represented, Mike Thompson, guns are his hobby, and there's other gun owners, Val Demings is on it, Benny Thompson was on it, I'm not sure he is anymore. These are all gun owners that believe in gun safety. I think we need people like you, my son is a gun owner, people like you to speak up more and say, this is important. In fact, the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, we just went over a survey that gun owners who believe in gun safety suggestions they have, and it can't be, "Oh, they just want to take away your gun," we have to relax people in that way.
If you have your gun legally, and you're not trying to hurt yourself or anybody else, have your gun but people just think that we want to take their guns away. We could never take everyone's guns away first of all. We want people to be safer with their guns. If your gun is stolen, please report it, or things like that. Teach your children about gun safety, just a lot of different things. If you notice something, report it. Like when you think about the school shootings and all the kids that killed kids, and you mean to tell me the parents never noticed anything or the case that's just up, I can't remember which state it is, where they did arrest the mother and the father. We all have to do our part.
Melissa Harris-Perry: It's an interesting point that with this, I feel like these constant roadblocks around even the most common sense policy, I so appreciate the point you're making that responsible gun ownership is something that if you're a gun gun owner, you ought take a lot of pride in and want to spread. I'm mostly a gun owner because my dad was very Southern, I mean we're just very Southern. There's also so much pride in, my children know how to use these weapons and we would never leave it unlocked or outside of a safe, you'd never leave it loaded, there's the rules that you go through military families, for example may have firearms in the house, law enforcement families having firearms in the house and taking pride in being careful and acknowledging that weapons like this actually shouldn't be in every single household.
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: Exactly. I grew up in a law enforcement family in New York and we had a mom and pop grocery store, and my grandfather had his rifle in the back of the store protecting his property. We climbed over that rifle every day. If you wanted to go to the bathroom, that's where the rifle was and you had to climb over it. Never in my mind, would I think about picking it up, playing with it because we were taught, you don't do that, you have to be responsible. I guess that's the big thing that I don't want people to think, because we're saying we need background tests, we need this, that everyone's anti-gun because that is simply not the case, simply not the case. We have to do better, we have to give law enforcement, ATF, the tools and the resources they need to do the job. People always talk about Chicago, oh, you have the strictest laws, you have this, that and the other. Yes, Chicago does, but the trafficking that occurs across state lines is horrible. The store purchasing, which leads to trafficking is horrible. Most of Chicago's crime guns do not come from Chicago or Illinois for that matter.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Tell me about the Federal Firearms Licensee Act.
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: The Federal Firearms Licensee Act would update US code around how federal firearms licensees secure guns and prevent theft. It conducts inventory and record data for background checks. Just another way of keeping guns more secure, knowing inventory, trying to prevent theft in any way. Also increases physical, security measures and clarifying standards around licensing for dealers and increasing gun transfer record retention, so you know who you sold your gun to, none of this back alley or outdoor selling the guns, knowing who the guns are sold to. The thing is, we know when you buy acar, where you bought the car from, who you sold the car to, when you buy a house. We track so many things, but guns have been carved out of so many things.
Melissa Harris-Perry: As you pointed out, part of the unique voice that brought you to Congress was to represent those families and communities impacted by daily gun violence. I'm wondering, as you talk to your constituents and others, if those communities feel invisible or if they feel that that they're being heard and that the losses and agony that they're enduring matters to other people.
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: They know that I'm out there fighting for them every day. I've become friends with so many of them, but also they do feel a great frustration. Some have said to me, when a police officer kills one person, there's a lot of attention, there's marching, there's this, there's that, there's the other, as there should be, I'm not saying there shouldn't be, but when it comes to community crime on crime, people cannot let that become normal. A big deal needs to continue to be made out of that also. We just had a press conference not too long ago, and listening to an 11-month-old got shot and in the Chicago land area driving down the expressway, people have gotten shot and just on and on and on. I know not just in Chicago has risen and I'm sure COVID has something to do with the trauma people feel.
I think they feel some people listen to them. They're very frustrated with some law makers, because they do feel like they don't care, and if it happened more in some other neighborhoods, would that get attention, but really I don't know. It's become too normalized. It's becomes such a part of the culture. When kids say they don't even know if they're going to live to 20 or they don't want to play in the park, people don't want to walk to the store. They don't want to walk to school because they're afraid. That's not right.
Melissa Harris-Perry: You're on the National stage, you are a member of the US House, and you are also leading the Illinois democratic party. Talk to me a little bit about what it means to be doing leadership at a more state and local level?
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: When I first got involved in government, it was a very local level where I live now and I've actually worked on every level of government, the county. I was a state rep and a state employee. We need to pay attention to what's going on in the states. I'm a Democrat, so we need to make sure we are paying attention and we're building the bench, not just about who's President or who's the Senator, that is all very important, but who's your school board member? Who's your mayor? Who's your county person? Who's your state rep? That's very, very important too. We can't lose people.
I want to welcome Democrats back home that might have felt ignored. I want to welcome young people, people of different ethnicities. I'm a really trying to make the democratic party more open, more transparent, more present, more active, and let everyone know that your voice matters. Your opinion matters no matter what zip code you live in, whether you're urban, sub-urban, or rural, we are truly all in this together and I want to help people feel that way again so they stay involved.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Congresswoman Robin Kelly, thank you so much for taking the time to join us.
Congresswoman Robin Kelly: You're quite welcome.
[00:12:53] [END OF AUDIO]
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