Mother of Sandy Hook victim speaks at Clinton town hall
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Hillary Clinton grew emotional at a town hall here on Monday while introducing a guest to tell her story about how she was affected by gun violence.
It's a story that is now familiar to many: Nicole Hockley lost her 6-year-old son, Dylan, in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
In a town hall full of lighter moments -- the Democratic presidential candidate joked to one questioner that she could call her "Val," the bartender that Clinton portrayed on Saturday Night Live over the weekend -- it was an poignant moment not often seen at events like this one.
"I want you to introduce yourself and maybe talk about what you and other parents are trying to do to get the changes that are necessary," Clinton said to Hockley.
Clinton met Hockley, along with local members of Moms Demand Action, ahead of the event in private. A campaign aide said that he wasn't expecting Clinton to call on her to speak at the event.
"Gun violence prevention was nowhere on my radar before losing my son and I wish it had been," Hockley said, "and I wish I had done something long before, something that I never thought could hit my community hit me."
Clinton continued: "So many of the parents of these precious children who were murdered have taken the unimaginable grief that they have been bearing and have tried to be the voices that we need to hear."
Clinton laid out four new proposals to tighten controls on gun manufacturers, sellers and buyers on Monday, days after a fatal shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon.
Clinton compared the community college to the one where her town hall was held: Manchester Community College.
"People attending classes, improving their skills, teaching, learning, thinking about the future, which was so ended, senselessly, tragically," she said.
Clinton's plan, through legislation and the use of executive power, would close loopholes in the current federal law so that more gun sales would rely on background checks, that background checks are completed before sales are approved and that all domestic abusers and convicted stalkers are barred from access to guns. In addition, Clinton has proposed repealing a 2005 law that protects gun manufacturers and dealers from legal action by victims of crimes committed with guns they produce or sell.
"They're not new," Clinton said of her proposals. "There's nothing unique about them other than the fact that I'm so determined."
The end of Clinton's sentence was drowned out by applause from the audience.