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Dems honor Fla. nightclub, Sandy Hook victims

Posted at 8:43 PM, Jul 27, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-27 20:43:16-04

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Democrats are paying tribute to the victims of the June attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Christine Leinonen tells the crowd at the Democratic convention that her son — Christopher “Drew” Leinonen — always brought people together and started a gay-straight alliance in school.

He was one of the 49 patrons killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. She says her son’s grandparents met in a Japanese internment camp “so it was in his DNA that love always trumps hate.”

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy says he’s “furious” about the lack of progress on gun control in the years since 20 first-graders and six adults were killed at the Connecticut school.

Murphy says Republicans in Congress have done “absolutely nothing to prevent the next massacre.”