On Monday afternoon, Hillary Clinton met with the surviving family members of African-American children killed by gun violence, including the mothers of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin.
Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother, told CNN the meeting was "powerful" and productive. U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush (D-IL) was also seen at the restaurant where the meeting took place.
Tamir Rice's mother, Samantha, said, "She is a mother and she is a woman and I felt she understood where we were coming from. It doesn't matter what color we are, I felt that she really understand where we are coming from."
Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, also attended the meeting, which had been in the works "for months," according to a Clinton aide— Monica Alba (@AlbaMonica) November 3, 2015
The meeting comes amid Clinton's campaign trail push to highlight her platform on criminal justice reform and her efforts to connect with the large Black Lives Matter movement. The movement was sparked by Martin's killing by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida. It grew following the deaths of Brown, who was shot by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, and Rice, a 12-year-old who was shot and killed by an officer in Cleveland.
In meeting with mothers of Trayon Martin & Tamir Rice, Clinton said: “we have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance.”— Monica Alba (@AlbaMonica) November 3, 2015
Clinton, along with her closest Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, has faced protests from BLM members, most recently on Friday in Atlanta where protesters interrupted Clinton's speech on her criminal justice platform. The candidate responded, "I'm sorry they didn't listen, because some of what they demanded I am offering and intend to fight for as president. We have to come together as a nation."
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Clinton's meeting with the family members of the young men whose deaths have galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement marks her effort to reach activists who have pushed her on these issues. It also keeps her criminal justice platform in the spotlight and distance herself from her competitors, Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley.
The meeting was a chance for Clinton to discuss her gun control proposals with family members who had lost loved ones to gun violence.
Grateful to spend time today with mothers who have lost a child to violence and turned their grief into a national call to action. -H— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 3, 2015
Since the shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, that left nine people dead, Clinton has been increasingly vocal about the need to strengthen the country's gun laws. She said that she would push Congress to close the "Charleston loophole," or stop gun sales to people with incomplete background checks. The alleged shooter in that incident, Dylann Roof, was able to purchase the gun used in that attack due to a breakdown in the federal background check system, the FBI said earlier this year.
Clinton's plan also suggests that, if elected president, she could bypass Congress to push her agenda through. If Congress doesn't act, Clinton would use her executive power to expand background checks so that "high volume gun sellers" are covered by the same rules that apply to brick and mortar gun stores. She would also support legislation banning domestic abusers from buying or possessing guns.
It's also a topic she hit Sanders hard on at the first Democratic debate.
.@HillaryClinton discusses gun control http://t.co/VgMMbDNTmH pic.twitter.com/2Ftm1r5TSp— POLITICO (@politico) October 14, 2015
The Chicago setting for this meeting proved tragically appropriate: Late Monday afternoon, an 8-year-old boy was shot and killed in the city's Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.
Heartbreaking scene at 80th & Damen where a child was shot in the alley pic.twitter.com/VIi2kEIEHP— Jessyca Malina (@jessycamalina) November 2, 2015