WASHINGTON D.C. — Kathryn Ramstad, widow of former Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad, wrote a note to Rep. Dean Phillips following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Phillips shared it on the House floor today before voting to pass 8 gun violence prevention measures:
Transcript:
Madam speaker,
Jim Ramstad represented Minnesota’s Third District in Congress as a principal Republican from 1991 to 2009. His widow, Kathryn, a remarkable woman in her own right, wrote me last week and asked that I share her message with the country. I quote, “Jim voted for the 1994 Crime Bill and its gun control measures. He was one of only six Republicans to cast what was clearly a difficult vote.
But he felt so strongly about the compelling need to act and believed it was consistent with his bipartisan, pragmatic, and commonsense approach to fighting crime. After so many mass shootings, I cannot understand why congress does not at the very least, she wrote, ban semiautomatic weapons like the AR-15, that's been used in so many recent mass shootings.” She continued, “I feel very strongly about this and ask sincerely, what can we do to legislate reasonable legislation like in 1994?”
What can she do, she asks? She and the country, ask, I might add. We all know what we can do, and I say let's do it.
