Statement by Vice President Kamala Harris on the Shooting in Jacksonville, Florida

On Saturday, as Americans marked the 60^th anniversary of the March on Washington, a gunman armed with an assault-style rifle and handgun opened fire at a Jacksonville store just blocks away from a Historically Black University, taking the lives of three Black Americans.

Already, federal law enforcement has opened a civil rights investigation into this attack and is treating it as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism.

As we allow that investigation to proceed, let us continue to speak truth about the moment we are in: America is experiencing an epidemic of hate. Too many communities have been torn apart by hatred and violent extremism. Too many families have lost children, parents, and grandparents. Too many Black Americans live every day with the fear that they will be victims of hate-fueled gun violence—at school, at work, at their place of worship, at the grocery store.

Every person in every community in America should have the freedom to live safe from gun violence. And Congress must help secure that freedom by banning assault weapons and passing other commonsense gun safety legislation.

Doug and I will keep the victims and their loved ones in our prayers.

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