Dear Neighbor,
This year, October brings more fear, uncertainty, violence and harmful rhetoric than I’ve ever seen in my political career. The growing policies of fear and hate from Washington have made this season actually frightening for many people. People are being kicked off SNAP, dragged from their homes and assailed in sanctioned violence encouraged by our government.
What’s more, the federal government is shut down, and even at the state level, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s 2025-26 budget is now more than three months overdue, thanks to inaction in the Senate. These are trying times, but we persist.
So far in our return to House session, majority Democrats immediately went to work on bills to curb gun violence and enhance public safety. Following Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman’s and Charlie Kirk’s murders, the murder of police in York, and mass shootings in schools, churches and offices now occurring on a weekly basis, my House colleagues and I acted immediately and put up our votes and our legislation for better public and gun safety. Despite our efforts on five bills, we managed to pass one bill that would require background checks on all sales of long guns. The Senate must now pass it for it to become law.
I hope they do. Even after all of the back and forth about left versus right, Democrat vs. Republican, liberal vs. conservative: All of it is a distraction from the core, clear and undeniable reality that America has a gun problem.
Assigning blame along party lines only inflames the moment, and unless we face that reality, these tragedies will continue to repeat themselves – whether the victims are elected officials, community leaders, or schoolchildren.
We have government officials afraid to host community events, for fear of their lives. We have workers afraid to go to their offices, for fear of their lives. We have young people afraid to go to clubs, or to Independence Day celebrations, for fear of their lives. We have children afraid to go to school, for fear of their lives.
We need to talk to each other – not past each other. We must begin having real conversations with people who don’t share our political ideology, who don’t look like us, and who don’t come from our neighborhoods. Democracy requires discourse, not division. That starts with all of us turning down the rhetoric and listening with humility.
I grieve for Charlie Kirk and his family. I grieve for the countless lives lost in acts of politically motivated or senseless gun violence.
Enough is enough.
Let’s choose solutions over scapegoating.