I have been thinking about courageous parenting. I have been thinking about it, watching you come to Congress on behalf of your slain children. It is unimaginable to me how parents who are forced to bury their children find the strength to go on. It is especially unimaginable when parents, mothers and fathers like you, find the courage and grace to fight against the evil that took your children away.
Honestly, I can barely watch or listen to your pain sometimes. When you talk about your slain 6-year-old son or daughter, I think of my own 6-year-old and what 6 feels like -- his joy, his radiance, the warmth of his hugs, the feeling of his small hand wrapped around mine. How do you live in a world where that is taken away?
You have been profiles in courage. And it saddens me that your courage could not be honored by the passage of sensible gun control legislation.
But if the politicians could not honor and support your courage, then we parents must do it. Because we understand, viscerally, that to parent is to submit to a wrenching vulnerability. Because we have nursed our babies, watched them take their first steps and eagerly listened for their first words -- each of these sacred moments deeply etched into our hearts. Because we understand that to lose our children is an unbearable thought. That it is why we will stand with, march with and vote with you as you continue your journey to change America's gun laws for all of our children.