Kamala Harris Blasts Congress' 'Pitiful' Response To Mass Shootings

Vice President Kamala Harris called out members of Congress for their “pitiful” inaction on gun violence following over 160 mass shootings this year, including one that killed four and injured 28 at an Alabama birthday party last week. (Watch her remarks below.)

Harris, who pleaded for “reasonable gun safety laws” earlier, questioned on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” Thursday why lawmakers don’t “have the courage” to do something.

“I just think it is pitiful that the people in the United States Congress do not have the courage to stand up to the gun lobby, stand up to the NRA and say, ‘Look, I support Second Amendment but we need reasonable gun safety laws,’” Harris said.

Harris, elsewhere in the interview, slammed the presentation of a “false choice” between the Second Amendment and gun safety laws.

“The point is to say it is reasonable that we would have background checks because it is reasonable that you might want to know if someone has been found by a court to be a danger to themselves or others before they can buy a gun,” she said.

“It’s just reasonable. It’s just reasonable. It is reasonable to say that weapons of war have no place on the streets of America and by that, I mean assault weapons.”

Hudson’s mother Darnell Donerson and brother Jason Hudson were found shot dead inside Donerson’s home in 2008. The singer’s 7-year-old nephew Julian King was found dead days later from gunshot wounds. William Balfour, her sister’s estranged husband, was convicted on three counts of murder in 2012 and is serving life in prison.

Gun violence has killed 12,800 people this year, and there have been 166 mass shootings — more than one per day — according to the Gun Violence Archive.