South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg says the U.S. has produced the second school shooting generation in America.
"I was part of the first generation that saw routine school shootings," Buttigieg said during the second Democratic national debate Tuesday when asked how the epidemic of gun violence had affected his life. "We have now produced the second school shooting generation in this country. We dare not allow there to be a third."
Buttigieg, who supports universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons, said he was in high school at the time of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.
"It's the worst part of being mayor, getting the phone call, consoling grieving parents," he said in describing the difficulties he has faced in helping families who were victims of gun violence in his city. "And we have a mass shooting’s worth of killings every day in this country."
"We're supposed to be dealing with this so you don't have to," he said. "High school is hard enough without worrying that you're going to get shot."
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