Thank you.Please have a seat if you have one.Good afternoon.Saturday, January 21st, 2023.Lunar New Yea
Time to enjoy.Or ballroom dance studio.Place of happiness, friendship and belonging.People across backgrounds and generations celebrating their cultural roots and bonding through ballroom song and dance.Place of refuge for immigrants have lived for years.
Support new immigrants who just arrived, becoming not just friends but family.That, as we all saw, a day of festivity in light turned into a day of fear and darkness.Holiday of hope and possibilities marked by horror and pain.Vibrant dances, music replaced by vigils and memorials.11 souls taken.
9 injured.Private mourning made public.A sense of safety shattered.Survivors will always carry the physical and emotional scars, families left behind who will never be the same. One of the worst mass shootings in California history.
The Lunar New Year Tragedy: A Day of Festivity Turned into Horror and Pain
A tragedy that has pierced the soul of this nation.Here in Monterey Park.The San Gabriel Valley, a heart of the Asian American community.My dear friend Judy Chu, former mayor.Monterey Park, your congresswoman and chair of Congressional Asian Pacific caucus.
Senator Alex Padilla, champion for this community, the entire state.Our good friend, Supervisor Hilda Solis and all elected officials, law enforcement, first responders, faith leaders, community members, all here today.You've shown up for this community, and I know you always will.To the families of victims who spend time I get a chance to speak with today, and whom Vice President Harris spent time with a few weeks ago.I'm here on behalf of the American people.
More and with you.To pray with you.To let you know you're loved and not alone.Every case is different.But I know what it's like
And always like to get that call.Notice like to be told. I notice like to lose a loved one so subtly.It's like closing a piece of your soul.Like a black hole in your chest. I feel like you're being sucked into.
A Heartbreaking Mass Shooting in Monterey Park: Mourning a Tight-Knit Community
Suffocated.Hardly able to breathe.The anger of the pain.Depth of the law is so profound it's hard to explain.The suddenness.
Tends to magnify the grief.There's time passes, the shock and numbness slowly.Make way for the sobering reality of their absence.An empty chair at the dinner table.Birthdays. Anniversaries.
Holidays without them.Everyday things. Small things. The detail you missed the most. The scent when you open that closet door.
Community Resilience in the Face of Tragedy: Pushing Forward Together
The part of your body that used to stroll in.Good morning tea shared together.The band of his smile, of perfect pitch, of her laugh.Judy shared with me.This is a tight knit community.
Within our generational households.And deep reverence and respect for its elders.Community has opened his heart and his homes to friends and neighbors.And so strong throughout the pandemic.As anti Asian hate crimes rose.
Community that in th face of horrific tragedy.Has become a symbol of hope and resilience.Pushing forward together.Healing together.People from all facing backgrounds rallying to show their love and support.
Raising money for funeral costs and memorial providing counseling.And translation services that the victims families.Providing and proving that even with heavy hearts we have unbreakable spirits.As a nation.Remember them? Immigrants from China, the Philippines, Vietnam.
Taiwan.All who found a home in America.Mr. My age, 72.Pillar of the community.
Remembering the Victims of the Lunar New Year Shooting: Immigrants Who Found a Home in America
Beloved manager and dance instructor at Star Ballroom.He walked patrons of their cars at night.Help new immigrants find jobs.Children and grandchildren will carry on his legacy in the spirit of one of his favorite Chinese proverbs.Cherish the people in front of you.
Cherish the people in front of you.And he got 72 Mr. Knice.For his kindness, his positivity is infectious. Smile.
Free spirit always ready to lend a helping hand.He died shielding his dance partner.Showed you on you 57.To vote Mom, wife, sister.Woman of faith
Unbreakable Spirits: How a Community Came Together to Support Lunar New Year Shooting Victims
Always there to help others, bringing food and newspapers to family members who had trouble walking.Always, always working tirelessly with their husband.To build a future for their three children.Nancy Jiang, 62.Known as Sister Sunshine.
She loved to play cards piano.The weekly volleyball game.Always sharing her own grown plants and vegetables with neighbors and friends.Dedicated Mom, married nearly 40 years.Husband and wife who had always together.
Even in theiMade the whole room laugh.A man devoted to his children and his grandchildren.Maybe, maybe not. 65 bedrock of her family and friends.Eternal optimist.
Cherishing the People in Front of You: Honoring the Memory of the Lunar New Year Shooting Victims
Avid dancer.Who'd visit the studio every weekend?Often leaving snacks behind for her classmates.She radiated positive energy through her laughter, her kind words.And her smile.
More die on 67 refugee community builder, cherished friend known for her kindness or sweetness or generosity.Beloved family.The center of her world.Diane and Tom, seven years old, devoted daughter, wife, mother, grandmother.Love to sing karaoke.
A giver and an adventurer would love to explore new foods and travel the world.Charles Rouse, 76, grateful. Reflective.Believed in living to the life to the fullest and constantly showed his family and friends.And showered them.
Honoring the Legacy of Lunar New Year Shooting Victims: A Tight-Knit Community Mourns
With warm words of encouragement, hope, and love.Talio, 64.A lifelong learner, he retired as a business manager and was pursuing a second career as a pharmacist.Or caring for his elder mother, elderly mother.A man beloved by his wife, children and friends
For his compassion.His determination and his wisdom.Lily 63.A matriarch with absolute strength, optimism, and grace.Her daughter wrote.
A Community United: How Tragedy Brought Monterey Park Together
Stolen as a grandmother whose granddaughter fell asleep many nights nestled between her loving arms.Taken away is the opportunity for her grandson.To feel her love and warmth.All of them live lives of love, sacrifice.Servic eir families, for their community.
They represent a bigger story who we are as Americans.Embodying the simple truth that our diversity, our diversity is the strength of this nation.We saw that strengthened.Maria Liang.And they're creating a warm welcome space.
Seniors.That strength and Brandon say who met me at the airport.I'm Jill, and I have gotten to know.20 minutes after the rampage.And Star Ballroom Brandon saw the same shooter walk into his family's own dance studio.
Just two miles away, pointing the gun at him.In an instant.He found the courage to act and wrestle a semi automatic fireware arm away.Brandon saved lives.He protected the community.
The Power of Community: Coming Together to Support Lunar New Year Shooting Victims
And Half Moon Bay, just two days later and they've got it.Brandon.Stand up.Half Moon Bay, just two late days later, we saw heroism from police officers, firefighters and other first responders who rushed into the danger to save lives.As many of you know, Jill and I invited Brandon as our guest at the state of the Union message.
Remembering Lives Lost: Immigrants Who Built New Lives in America
Because we wanted the country to know all of you. Not just Brandon. All of you.The character of this community.The faith you have in this community, the pride.
We see across. We see it in you across all of American life.Just this week, a film about resilience and power, the Asian American immigrant family made history at the Oscars.Echoing the heart of so many in this community.We also hear.
A message we've heard too often, including two years ago this week.After the spa shooting at the Atlanta and the Atlanta area enough?Do something.We remember and mourn today.But I'm here with you today to act
A Symbol of Resilience: How the Lunar New Year Shooting Brought People of All Backgrounds Together
Last year after the mass shooting in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX.I signed in the law after being both places and bipartisan Savior Communities Act most significant gun safety law in almost 30 years.That was in addition to me signing more executive actions to reduce gun violence than any of my predecessors at this point in the presidencies. Today I'm announcing another executive order. They'll accelerate and intensify this work to save more lives more quickly.
Immigrant Dreams Shattered: Mourning the Victims of the Lunar New Year Shooting
- First, this executive order helps keep firearms out of dangerous hands.As I continue to call on Congress to require background checks for all firearm sales.And in the meantime?In the meantime, my executive order directs my attorney general to take every lawful action possible possible to move us as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.I just it's just common sense to check whether someone is a felon, a domestic abuser, before they buy a gun.
- The executive order also expands public awareness campaigns about the red flag orders laws, which my son, when he, before he died in Attorney general in Delaware, was a great proponent of an institute.So more parents, teachers, police officers, health providers and counselors know how to flag for the A court that someone is exhibiting violent tendencies.Threatening classmates.Or experiencing suicidal thoughts.That make them a danger to themselves and others and temporarily move.
- That person's access to firearms.And it promotes.This executive order safe storage for firearms, something every responsible gun owner agrees with.Second thing it does is executive order ramps up our efforts to hold the gun industry accountable.It's the only outfit you can't sue these days.
- It does that by calling out for an independent government study.That analyzes and exposes how gun manufacturers aggressively market firearms to civilians, especially minors, including by using military imagery.And it directs the Attorney general.The public release publicly released alcohol tomorrow and firearms inspection reports of firearms dealers who were cited for violation of the law.That way,
- policymakers can strengthen laws to crack down on those illegal gun dealers, and the public can avoid purchasing from them.
- 3rd the Executive Order approves federal coordination to support victims, survivors, and their families and communities affected by mass shootings the same way FEMA response to their natural disaster in California and all around the nation.And it will help folks recover and build after wide that they help folks recover and build after wildfires and superstorms and droughts, for example. We need to provide more mental health support and grief for grief and trauma.And more financial assistance and the family loses the sole breadwinner or in a small business, shuts down due to lengthy shooting investigation.There's more in this executive order, but I'm not stopping there
- Last week I laid out of my budget.That we invest more in safer communities and expand access to mental health services for those affected by gun violence.Congressional Republicans.Should pass my budget instead of calling for cuts in these services, or defunding the police or abolishing the FBI, as we hear from our Magnum Republican.But let's be clear.
- None of this absolves Congress the responsibility.From the responsibility of acting.To pass universal background checks, eliminate gun manufacturers immunity from liability.And I'm determined once again to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazine.I LED that fight in to ban them in 1994.
- The 10 years that law was in place, mass shootings went down.Our Republican friends let it expire when it's ten years later and mass shootings tripled since then. Tripled. So let's finish the job. Ban assault weapons. Ban them again. Do it now. Enough. Do something. Do something big
- Folks.Let me close with this.Scripture says.The Lord is near to broken hearted.And saves the crushed in spirit.
- A lot of us have been there.To gather here today.I know your hearts are broken.I don't know. Your spirits are strong.
- Now as you're remembering heal.I know the light.Of your loved one.Once again, gonna lead you forward.It takes time.
Healing Together: How a Community Found Hope in the Wake of Tragedy
I tell everyone at least it did with me. It takes time.But I promise you.I promise you.The day will come.
When the memory of your loved one.Brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye.Cheer will never fully go away.But when you had that smile, first remembers.That's when you know.
That's when you know you're going to make it.You're gonna know you're gonna make.My prayer for all of you that day will come sooner than later, but I promise you.Will come.God bless you all. I admire you so damn much
