Mom slams Trump's inaction on gun violence at Democratic convention: 'He doesn't care'

A mom whose 13-year-old son was shot in the head at a birthday party called out Donald Trump’s lack of action on gun violence on Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention.

DeAndra Dycus of Indianapolis told the story of her son DeAndre, who lost his ability to speak and walk as a result of the shooting, more than six years ago.

“I can touche DeAndre, I can hold his hand. But the child I birthed is not able to live his dreams, and that hurts. Every day we are reminded that he may never be the same,” she said. “We are not alone. In every town, across America, there are families who know what a bullet can do.”

She added, “President Trump — he doesn’t care. He didn’t care about the victims after Parkland, Las Vegas, or El Paso. I want a president who cares about our pain and grief, a president who will take on the gun lobby to ban assault weapons and close the loopholes to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.”

Despite promising to address gun violence following several mass shootings in 2019, Trump has done virtually nothing to reduce the problem.

In August 2019, after deadly mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, Trump announced a bipartisan push to “truly make America safer” and ensure the victims “will not have died in vain.”

“We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms and that if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process,” Trump said in an address to the nation at the time. “That is why I have called for red flag laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders.”

“Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks,” he tweeted the same day.

Later that week, he told reporters that “we need intelligent background checks.

But the National Rifle Association, which endorsed Trump in 2016 and spent more than $30 million to elect him, objected to the proposals. The group’s chief executive reportedly told the White House in September to “stop the games.”

Trump subsequently changed his tune, claiming that there were already “a lot of background checks” before eventually dropping the topic entirely.

When another mass shooter in Milwaukee killed five Molson Coors brewery coworkers in February, Trump offered only his “deepest condolences” in a 42-second statement but no action.

In July, after again receiving the NRA’s backing for his 2020 reelection bid, Trump vowed to “ALWAYS protect our Great Second Amendment, and never let the Radical Left take away your Rights, your Guns, or your Police!”

Trump’s single anti-gun violence effort — an executive action banning bump stocks — went into effect in March 2019. That happened more than a year after his administration began reviewing their legality in the weeks following an October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.

In his 2016 convention speech, Trump guaranteed, “The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon — and I mean very soon — come to an end. Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored.”

But according to the Gun Violence Archive, gun violence remains a huge problem.

The number of mass shootings and non-suicide gun deaths each year have not declined since Trump took office. There were 382 mass shootings in 2016 versus 417 in 2019; willful, malicious, and accidental gun deaths went from 15,112 to 15,208 over that time.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.