ATLANTA — Vice President Kamala Harris was in Atlanta again Tuesday, the second time in less than a week.
She visited the Carter Center for a summit on gun violence in partnership with a local rapper.
She talked about providing more resources to prevent gun violence in metro Atlanta.
The crowd was full of survivors - relatives of victims who had been murdered. They cheered when Harris talked about providing mental health services to young people.
Grammy-nominated musician Quavo, from Gwinnett County, does a lot of charity work in metro Atlanta.
When his nephew Takeoff -- another Grammy-nominated musician - was shot to death 2 years ago in front of him – he started the Rocket Foundation to stop the violence in metro Atlanta.
“It didn’t hit hard until it hit home for me,” Quavo said. “When I saw him lying there I feel like I saw myself laying there.”
On Takeoff’s birthday - Tuesday afternoon – Quavo’s foundation gave $20,000 to each of these organizations that work to stop violence in the metro.
About an hour later, Harris joined Quavo on stage to talk about solutions.
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She started off by saying she’s not against the right to bear arms.
“I’m in favor of the 2nd Amendment. I also believe there’s no reason why we have assault weapons on the streets of America. They are weapons of war,” Harris said.
Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernades contacted the chair of the Georgia GOP, state Sen. Josh McKoon, to get his reaction to the vice president’s visit.
“It does not matter how many times Kamala Harris visits Georgia, she cannot hide the failed record of the Biden-Harris Administration. Their weaponization of the criminal justice system threatens to replace America’s status as a respected free society with one of a third-rate banana republic,” McKoon said in a statement.
Harris said her administration has provided resources to hire 300 mental health counselors to work in Georgia schools and said young people are more willing to be honest and open about mental health issues.
Quavo was supposed to speak one-on-one with Fernandes about what Tuesday meant to him and his family, but he got emotional and needed to take a break.
He said takeoff’s death is still so hard to deal with. He told Fernandes that he wants to be “the plug” for real change in his hometown.
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