This past Saturday was the anniversary of the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting which left 12 dead and 70 injured.
Across the nation, politicians of all stripes paid respect to the Coloradans whose lives were changed forever at the midnight screening of a Batman movie.
“It’s been seven years since the mass shooting at the Aurora movie theater in Colorado, and Congress hasn’t done enough,” Democratic primary candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) tweeted on Saturday.
“No matter where you live, you deserve to feel safe,” she continued. “We can keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”
Harris was one of the few Democratic primary candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden, to memorialize the shooting online.
“We remember those we lost, the many who were injured, and those still recovering,” Sen. Cory Gardner, (R-CO), tweeted on Saturday. “God bless our 1st responders.”
Some on the platform called Gardner out over his record on gun control, including Rep. Tom Sullivan, (D-Centennial), whose political career began when his son was shot to death that night.
“You are one of the reasons I ran for office,” Sullivan, tweeted in response to Gardner. “You have refused to meet me when I have gone to your office in DC & Denver. When I stood in front of you at a town hall in CO Springs you didn’t acknowledge my son.”
In the tweet, Sullivan went on to characterize Gardner’s statement as “politicizing in the worst way” and said that that “Colorado is better than this.”
Despite his personal stake in the tragedy, Colorado Republicans pounced on Sullivan – particularly over his support for the highly controversial Red Flag Bill – with an ultimately unsuccessful recall campaign.
Segments of the Colorado GOP and extreme gun rights groups like Rocky Mountain Gun Owners are fixated on the bill as a threat to second amendment rights despite overwhelming bipartisan support.
