Casten Statement on Shooting in Aurora
Downers Grove, IL – U.S. Representative Sean Casten (IL-06) released the following statement regarding the shooting at Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, Illinois.
Casten said, "In tragedy, we – mere human beings – seek answers. It is, as they say, human nature. We want to know why. Why did someone commit this unthinkable act?
How could someone not have done more to stop it? What if….
In the aftermath of gun tragedies like the one in Aurora, the questions pile up.
I speak now as a scientist and a father.
I recall – probably most of you recall – as a kid, standing in a classroom, mixing fluids from a couple of beakers and watching in amazement the chemical reaction. How satisfying was that to do such a simple thing and see it immediately result in change?
As a father, how I wish, and I know you wish, that life could, at least on the big problems, be that simple. I wish we could pour some ingredients together and put a stop to gun tragedies. I suspect most of us here wish we could concoct a potion that would bring back loved ones we lost and still hold dear.
We long for a quick cure to this collective nightmare.
We are in mourning for five innocent lives – five good men. We are heartbroken for their families. We are thankful for the police officers who did their duty, bravely. We are, many of us, drained from the sadness we feel and the shock that such a savage act could happen so close to home.
To all of you who hurt, who are angry, who are tired of seeing this senseless violence, I say, don't give up.
Putting a stop to this epidemic of gun violence will take all of us, insisting on our right, and the rights of our children, to go to a concert, go to school, go to work, and come home safe and sound at the end of the day.
This scientist and father is standing here telling you that solutions take time. They take persistence. They take the right ingredients, in the right amounts, coming together at the right time.
So be sad today. But tomorrow be angry. And in the weeks and months ahead be determined, be persistent, be insistent. The solution to this problem – this big, ugly problem that is haunting communities all across this country – will, I'm sorry to say, take time. But the single most important ingredient – the one without which we will never find the solution – is you.
For being here today and for all that I know you are going to do and keep on doing, thank you."