My Statement on the Roxborough High School Shooting

My heart hurts for Philadelphia. No parent, no family, no school, and no city should ever have to go through what the Roxborough High School community is going through right now.

Yesterday’s tragedy is appropriately receiving a lot of attention. But most of these tragedies — specifically those in Black neighborhoods — do not. In neighborhoods like North Philadelphia and towns like Braddock across Pennsylvania, fatal shootings have become so painfully normalized that they barely make local headlines, let alone national news.

For the sake of our children in neighborhoods like Roxborough and North Philadelphia, and in towns like Braddock, we simply have to do more to stop these senseless tragedies. We need real solutions. While I was mayor of Braddock, we went five and a half years without a death by gun violence because we rolled up our sleeves and did the hard work.

We need to ensure the police have the resources to do their jobs well. We need to invest in initiatives that support our young people and that increase trust between cops and the communities they serve. We need to pass common sense gun safety measures that we know save lives. This is what I’d fight for in the U.S. Senate.

Oz would do nothing to address gun violence. On Monday, Oz came to Philadelphia and told the cameras that in order to reduce gun violence, we need more body cameras on cops. Oz has no clue about tackling gun violence and crime. It’s frankly insulting to the people of PA and the victims and families of gun violence who are suffering the consequences of Republican inaction.

Yesterday, Oz bashed the American Rescue Plan which ensured police in communities across the country had the funding they needed. He repeatedly says he’d reject common sense gun safety measures. This guy is all talk and no action, he has no idea about the solutions we need here.

As Mayor I have been at the scenes of shootings, I know how hard this is. Dr. Oz has no idea what this is like, he has never faced these issues head on.

The stakes are high. We need leadership who actually gets it and will fight to fix it — not another hack who will do the NRA’s bidding once elected. Pennsylvanians deserve someone who will fight to keep their families safe. Oz only fights for himself.