Former congresswoman on Tulsa shooting

Yes, Nikole. Thank you for having me. I have to agree. I wish it were under very different circumstances. It's hard. I think, first, my heart goes out to the families and the individuals who are feeling this loss so close to home, the first responders and everyone who will have to live with this horrific trauma. The reality is that we are all grieving and the pain inflicted when we see lives cut short unnecessarily like this is real and it takes a long time to heal. And that goes to our country and our state. Our communities are tired. We're angry, we're exhausted and heartbroken because day after day of seeing this happen again, we just can't continue to go down this path. We have to do better. We have to push back at the extremism that is fraying the fabric of our democracy to the point where leaders are ignoring the complex issues and just using talking points to attack each other and not solve these very real issues. You know Nikole, as Oklahomans, we know all too well what the endgame of extremism looks. The very real toll it takes on us. I grew up in a small community just outside of Chickasha and remember vividly the day that 168 lives were ripped from us because of extremism and we have to take action. And we need our communities, our elected leaders, we need to elect leaders that are going to stand up and say, we have to tackle these issues. These very real issues with common sense solutions and not further the divisions but heal the divisions and take action to protect the rights of responsible citizens and make all of us safer. - Since you were in Congress and now running for Congress again, what specific changes would you like to see Congress passed and do you think there's a political will to get anything done this time?

Nikole, I think that people in our communities, I think that the majority of Oklahomans and Americans understand that we can take common sense solutions. Things such as background checks. I voted for HR 8, one of the very first votes that I took in Congress. There's bipartisan support for this. As I said, we can take steps like limiting bump stocks and high capacity magazines, and protecting our communities without limiting the rights of responsible gun owners. And one of the reasons that I ran for Congress and I'm running again for this US Senate seat is because I deeply believe and know that we can work on and find solutions. But we have to have elected leaders who are willing to do that and I'm the only one in this Senate race that is willing to even have these very difficult conversations. We simply cannot allow ourselves to let extremism tear us apart and make us believe that our friends and our neighbors are our enemies. That's where we have to take action, not in the extremes but in the reality of what we're dealing with. And it has to go beyond simply addressing gun violence. It has to go to healing the divisions and understanding why we continue to see so many predominantly young men taking action and cutting the lives of people short. This is what we need from our elected leaders because we are not helpless and we are not hopeless. But in order to solve these divisions and fix these very real issues, we have to reject extremism and take action and reach our hands out across the aisle to get the work done and solve these very real problems. - I mean, is there anything different about these most recent shootings in your view?

Nikole, I think it is the culmination of this. Schools, churches, grocery stores and now hospitals. These type of tragedies should not be our everyday life in this country. And as the volume turns up on extremism from wherever it comes from all sides, we have to reject it and know that we can protect and support our communities. And we have to do the hard work of looking at why this is happening. Background checks are an important first step but we cannot stop there. We have to address the problems with access to health care and extremism seeping its way in to our communities because overwhelmingly, I know this about Oklahomans and Americans. We have more in common than we have that's different. We have to demand that our leaders acknowledge this and do the hard work of getting things done and stop pointing fingers at each other. That's the only way we're going to get through this. - Several polls show a majority of Americans support closing loopholes in background checks and smaller majority support a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. How do you square that with what Congress has and hasn't done on gun reform?

There are as I said so many layers to all of this. Background checks, HR 8 is an important first step to protect our communities and also to protect the rights of responsible gun owners. Closing loopholes is another important piece of this puzzle. We have to be thoughtful about the way we do it. So again, we can balance those interests. But what we have to do is reject the notion that there is a simple box to check that will eliminate all of these problems. We have to look at these complex issues in a complex way and say absolutely not. We are not going down this path anymore. We need to heal these deep divisions and look at the evidence, take action and have conversations with each other. Because pointing fingers and demanding all or nothing solutions on either side leaves us stuck and it leaves me, you're talking to you about yet another trauma. - And Democratic Senate candidate and former Congresswoman Kendra Horn. Our condolences to your state, thank you.

Thank you, Nikole.