Hillary Clinton meets with mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown


On Monday, Hillary Clinton met with the families of several African-American teenagers and children who died in shootings to discuss their experiences and her plans for "commonsense" gun control.
Clinton spent more than two hours in Chicago meeting with more than a dozen mothers who lost their children to gun violence, including the mothers of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old killed in 2012 in Florida by former neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman; Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old killed in a 2014 shooting that started with a complaint about loud music; Michael Brown, the 18-year-old killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in a shooting that sparked unrest in the town; and Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old shot and killed by police in Cleveland while carrying an airsoft gun.
Clinton's campaign says that as president, Clinton would "act on gun violence and will work to improve relations between law enforcement officials and the communities they serve." She also believes "commonsense gun reforms" like background checks for online sales and closing certain loopholes will keep guns "out of the hands of the criminals and the violently unstable," the campaign added. While Clinton didn't make any promises, the women told CNN, she did say she would work on criminal justice reform. "She is a mother and she is a woman and I felt she understood where we are coming from," Samaria Rice, Tamir Rice's mother, told CNN. "It doesn't matter what color we are, I felt that she really understood where we are coming from." Later, Clinton tweeted she was "grateful to spend time today with mothers who have lost a child to violence and turned their grief into a national call to action."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Book reviews: 'The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century' by Tim Weiner and 'The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon' by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
feature
-
Trump contradicts Israel, says 'starvation' in Gaza
Speed Read The president suggests Israel could be doing more to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians
-
Sydney Sweeney's 'great jeans': why American Eagle ad is so controversial
Talking Point Series of adverts featuring American actress Sydney Sweeney cause storm around race and eugenics
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murders
speed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bail
Speed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambush
Speed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrial
Speed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside home
speed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
-
DOJ, Boulder police outline attacker's confession
speed read Mohamed Sabry Soliman planned the attack for a year and 'wanted them all to die'
-
Assailant burns Jewish pedestrians in Boulder
speed read Eight people from the Jewish group were hospitalized after a man threw Molotov cocktails in a 'targeted act of violence'
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC parade
speed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack