President Biden to visit Connecticut this week for gun safety summit

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) - President Joe Biden planned a visit to Connecticut this week.

The White House confirmed that Biden will travel to the state on Friday, June 16.

He will visit a gun safety summit at the University of Hartford. This is where President Obama spoke on gun violence in 2013.

It steps off at 8 a.m.

Biden will also travel to Greenwich on Friday and participate in a campaign reception.

The gun summit will mark the one-year anniversary since the Safer Communities Act, the biggest gun safety law in 30 years.

This year in Connecticut, Governor Lamont got his gun safety proposals through the general assembly, the most sweeping gun laws since those that passed after Sandy Hook.

The National Safer Communities Summit will be attended by Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, along with gun safety advocates who are pushing for the Senate to pass an assault weapons ban.

Po Murray from the Newtown Action Alliance is in DC right now with Kristen Song, whose 15-year-old son Ethan was killed with a gun, and has pushed successfully for safe storage.

They are at a sit-in with Sam Schwartz. His cousin Alex Schacter was killed at a mass shooting in Parkland.

They welcome President Biden.

“It’s important for him to be there, to show up for the survivors and advocates who have been in this fight for decades or new to the movement. And we really appreciate that the president is showing up for us,” said Murray.

“76% of school shooters get their guns from home. So right there, if we can get guns locked up we are going to drive down deaths of our children dramatically,” said Kristin Song, Ethan Miller Song Foundation.

For more information on the summit, including the agenda, click here.

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