Remarks by Vice President Harris After Meeting with Firefighters

Santa Monica Fire Station 2
Santa Monica, California

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So the President and I have been in close coordination, and we are being briefed on what’s happening right now in terms of the active shooter situation.  We are sending federal resources to local law enforcement and the folks on the ground to make sure that we can help them in terms of the capture of the shooter and any investigation that will follow.
 
But right now, we do have an active shooter situation.  And so we are putting all of the resources possible into monitoring that in a way that we can bring this to a close in terms of also capture of the individual.
 
I am going to travel to Chicago tomorrow morning to address the National Association of Educators, NEA.  And I was just sharing with some of our heroes, our local firefighters, a part of what I’m preparing — sadly, I was preparing it before, but it is resonant every day — is a whole section on what our teachers go through.  They go to school to learn how to teach our children, to inspire their ambition, to create the future generations of leaders.  And our teachers are also in training to deal with an active shooter.  Our teachers are having to learn how to put a tourniquet on a kid if they have been shot.
 
And so, when we look at the issue of gun violence and when we look at the dangers that it presents to communities, it ranges and it is something that we should take very seriously.
 
The President recently signed bipartisan legislation to address the issue of gun violence, but we clearly have much more to do.
 
So, thank you all.