16 February 2018 — 0906 mst

Washington, D.C. is broken. Our representatives choose time and again to bend to the interests of lobbyists and corporate donors at our expense.

I have spent my entire career as a consumer protection advocate, fighting for people who have been bullied and harmed by big banks and powerful corporations. I am running for U.S. House of Representatives to fight for all Montanans the same way that I have fought for my clients.

Shortly after I announced my campaign, 58 innocent concertgoers were murdered in Las Vegas. Hundreds were injured. A few weeks ago in Polson, at one of the many town halls that we’ve held, a grandmother asked me, “What are you going to do to protect my grandchildren from gun violence?” I offered thoughts and prayers, but nothing else.

My wife Meagen and I have four kids. Every morning, I walk my two youngest children to the public elementary school across the street from our home. And after I drop them off, like every parent, I worry for their safety. I can only imagine the heartache felt by parents in South Florida yesterday when their children did not come home.

Today, I apologize to that grandmother in Polson for not giving her a more straight forward answer.

Please understand. As a gun owner, I believe in the Second Amendment. I cherish my Constitutional right to legally possess firearms. Like all gun owners, I know that with rights come responsibilities.

I do not pretend to have all the answers. I do know this: Many of our elected officials in Washington, D.C. are bought and paid for by the powerful corporate gun lobbyists who bankroll their campaigns. Those that are not, often feel paralyzed for fear of offending them. I have rejected corporate PAC and corporate lobbyist money. This includes the gun industry.

Importantly, we need Federal support and funding for mental health centers and services throughout Montana and throughout our country. Resources to support effective violence prevention strategies, such as community policing, probation and parole officers and access to high-quality, affordable healthcare services are essential. Our law enforcement officials and prosecutors need the funding and support to implement the laws and programs that can and should work.

While protecting the second amendment, we must implement common sense: Close the gun show loophole. Ban bump stocks. Expand the existing prohibition against domestic abusers possessing firearms to everyone who is convicted of a violent crime.

Powerful interests have put a stranglehold on our ability protect our children and the most vulnerable people in our society. Today and every day, I will fight for people, not corporations or lobbyists.

As a parent, I am terrified of the idea that my daughter’s life, or any child’s life, could be in danger at school. I’m heartbroken for the parents who lost children, students who lost friends and the entire community of Parkland. As a responsible gun owner, my instincts tell me that this shooter in Florida is exactly who I expect a background check to prevent from purchasing a gun. But as a scientist, and person asking to shape our nation’s policies, I can’t rely on my emotions and instincts alone to make informed decisions.

Mass killings are a national problem and Congress absolutely has a role to play in understanding and working to prevent these atrocities. We can begin with stricter enforcement of existing federal laws and Congress should sufficiently fund Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research into the contributing causes and motivations of mass killings and how our laws and policies are working (or not) to prevent them.

Events over the last couple days are stunning and saddening. But we should not forget that there are many deaths occurring close to home without headlines. The majority of gun deaths in our country are from suicide, and we have among the worst rates of suicide here in Montana. Congress must defend the gains we’ve made in mental health care access and work to expand preventive and acute mental health care services for all Americans. We can and should be working to ensure that no American’s mental state would lead them to take their own or another person’s life.

I’m a gun owner. I believe in the right to bear arms responsibly. But as our children continue to be massacred at school, I also know it’s time to take action. We have had too many gun massacres in America.

The NRA’s extreme positions do not represent the views of responsible gun owners like me. They too often refuse to seek common ground on policies that might prevent mass shootings. And they have Greg Gianforte firmly in their pocket, to the tune of $344,630 in direct contributions as well as indirect support to his campaign.

In the Montana Legislature, I voted against bills that would have deregulated guns on college campuses and allowed people to carry guns in all bars, restaurants, and churches. In Congress, I will work with anyone to pass common sense reforms that address escalating mass gun violence.

My family owns shotguns and rifles, but we’ve never felt the need to buy an AR-15. High-capacity magazines and military-style assault rifles need to be confined to controlled environments, like machine guns are today. In Congress, I will support assault weapon controls designed to keep military-style weapons off our streets while protecting responsible owners such as antique collectors and sportsmen. We also must regulate bump stocks, like the ones found on the scene in Las Vegas last year. Even the NRA has shown some willingness to work on that.

These mass shootings often have a tragic connection to mental health. Sadly, our mental health system is failing many Americans due to high costs and draconian budget cuts. My top priority in Congress will be to lower healthcare costs and expand access to quality care. We need to ensure that mental health is an integral part of the conversation when we talk about expanding health care.

My heart is heavy today thinking of the victims in Florida and their families. Enough is enough. Parents need to be able to send their kids to school and know that they will come home again. In D.C. I will work on policies to protect Americans from gun massacres. If the NRA wants to give me an “F” for that, then I will proudly say that it stands for “fearless.”

I am devastated as we continued to learn about the tragedy in Parkland, FL. As a mom, grandmother, and your future Congresswoman I have and will continue to work towards policies that honor our hunting traditions in Montana while protecting children and domestic partners from gun violence.

Congress indeed has a role to to play and I would support congressional action in many areas. These include expanded background checks, making sure men and women under domestic violence protection orders can not own guns, advocate for safer storage of firearms, like trigger locks and locked storage.

Additionally, I would champion for increased mental health spending and access. Suicide is a major cause of death for both adults and teenagers in Montana, and guns are often used.

Finally, I challenge the National Rifle Association to advocate for firearm safety measures to protect children.

After the senseless deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I had a guest opinion published in the [Billings] Gazette. My sentiment still stands:

Most Montanans live in cities where we expect our schools, shopping malls, downtowns and neighborhoods to be safe — expectations that are universal, expectations that are the core of our civic values. There are about 120,000 children under the age of 14 living in Montana and more than 60 million children of that age in communities across our nation. It is a number far greater than the NRA membership. Each of those children deserve a commitment to meaningful gun control in all states, including Montana.