Ryan to Lead Caravan to Louisville Gun Control Rally
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan is traveling to Kentucky Thursday to take part in a gun control rally in Louisville, Ryan’s congressional office announced Wednesday afternoon.
Ryan, D-13 Ohio, will join the Ohio chapter of Moms Demand Action leading a caravan to the hometown of Senate Majority Mitch McConnell.
The caravan will begin in Niles with stops in Cuyahoga Falls, Westerville, Dayton and Cincinnati before arriving for the rally at City Plaza in Louisville. There the participants will join a rally with U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3 Ky., and urge McConnell to pass comprehensive gun control legislation
Ryan, a candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and Moms Demand Action are encouraging local officials and community members to join the caravan to the rally, which is being organized by Yarmuth.
The rally and Ryan’s involvement in the caravan comes as he has stepped up his attacks on President Trump in the wake of the mass shooting in Dayton early Sunday morning that left nine people dead and 37 injured, as well as the mass shooting Saturday in El Paso that took the lives of 22 people and left more than two dozen injured.
Ryan’s presidential campaign sent an email Wednesday that criticized President Donald Trump’s visits to Dayton and El Paso. He said he stood with protestors in both cities “who are holding strong for change” and urged people to sign an online petition calling on McConnell to bring the Senate back into session.
“Trump is incapable of showing the level of emotion that is needed to heal the country. Empty words will not stem the tide of violence ripping through our nation,” Ryan said in the email. “Thoughts and prayers aren’t going to help us. We need real change, real solutions, and real action. I want to see our president and my colleagues in Congress do something.”
In response, Mandi Merrit, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said Trump showed “real leadership” by meeting with first responders and survivors of the Ohio and Texas shooting “while calling for unity and healing.
“It’s unfortunate that Democrats continue to try and score cheap political points and sow further division in America with divisive rhetoric,” she continued. “Meanwhile, President Trump has called on Congress to act and has proposed common-sense, bipartisan solutions that should be taken seriously.”
Last weekend, Ryan temporarily paused his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to go to Dayton. During a subsequent appearance on CNN the congressman applauded U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-10, whose district includes Dayton, for supporting “sensible gun reforms.”
In a statement issued Tuesday, Turner announced his support for preventing the sale of military-style weapons to civilians, a magazine limit and red-flag bills. “The carnage these military-style weapons are able to produce when available to the wrong people is intolerable,” he said.
According to media reports, Turner’s daughter was across the street from where the attack took place but was uninjured.
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