Hirono, Maui Students Call for Action on Gun Violence at Concert for Our Lives

KAHULUI –  Senator Mazie K. Hirono encouraged students to continue to advocate for safer schools and an end to gun violence at the Concert for Our Lives Maui.

“This is a movement that will inspire a generation,” Senator Hirono said. “Activists from across the country and around the world came together today to demand sensible gun legislation that will close background check loopholes, eliminate bump stocks, and prevent anyone from owning assault weapons. If these bills pass, it will be because of you and the movement we are all joining. I stand with you because we are all in this together.”

Following her remarks, Senator Hirono introduced a video following the journey of a two-and-a-half-mile lei of aloha sent from Hawaii students to Parkland, Florida. The Lei of Aloha for World Peace project previously sent lei to the survivors of mass shootings in Las Vegas and Orlando, and to survivors of the 2015 Paris bombing.

The sold-out concert featured performers such as Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson, and Willie K to raise awareness of the need to enact sensible gun safety legislation and end gun violence.

Senator Hirono is a strong and consistent supporter of common sense gun safety legislation in the Senate. Last year, she introduced a bill that would close a loophole in the Uniform Code of Military Justice that allows convicted abusers to purchase firearms. Closing this loophole could have helped to prevent the shooter in Sutherland Springs, Texas, from accessing the firearm that he used to kill 26 people while they attended church. 

Last year she also joined Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in reintroducing legislation that would ban the sale, transfer, manufacture, and importation of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Senator Hirono has also co-sponsored numerous pieces of legislation that would strengthen our criminal background check system, ban high capacity ammunition magazines, prevent domestic abusers from accessing firearms, repeal the Dickey Amendment, and make straw purchasing and firearms trafficking federal crimes.

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