‘I Don’t Want To Hear Any More About Thoughts And Prayers!’ State Sen. Goes OFF on GOP After Walmart Shooting in Her District

Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas torched Republicans in her state over the mass shooting at a Walmart in her district, saying until they’re ready to do something about gun violence, “I don’t want to hear any more about thoughts and prayers!”

On Wednesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Don Lemon and co-anchors Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow hosted Sen. Lucas to discuss the still-developing mass shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, that unfolded Tuesday night.

In addition to revealing details about the shooting, Lucas tore into Republican legislators, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, over the issue of gun violence:

KAITLAN COLLINS: So we still have big questions, obviously, about all of this. I want to bring in Louise Lucas. She is a Virginia state senator. The shooting occurred in her district in Chesapeake. And good morning. I know this is not the news, obviously, that you wanted to be waking up to this morning. You were weighing in on this last night. I just want to start on what is the latest that you’ve learned in the hours since this happened about what exactly transpired inside that Wal-Mart?

STATE SEN. LUCAS: Well, you were saying how waking up this morning, a lot of us didn’t get much sleep last night, did not rest well and will not rest well until we get a handle on this gun violence. We need gun violence prevention in Virginia.

And I’ll tell you, for all the people who are saying that their hearts and prayers go out to these people. I don’t want to hear any more about that until they get serious about gun violence prevention! That’s the only thing that’s going to stop us from having to stand before these cameras or write these, these tip lines saying that we are, our hearts and prayers go out to them. We can do something to stop this. I am sick and tired of legislators giving mouth service to it after we have these violent mass shootings and then do nothing about it when we have an opportunity to go back to the legislature and do something about it.

Right after the mass shooting in Virginia Beach, we all came together with the hope that we were going to present some gun violence prevention measures, only to abruptly adjourn without getting anything done, with the exception of course, the following year I did get Senate Bill number 70 passed, which is the universal background checks bill. But we need to beef up that bill as well. We need to be more on point with how we deal with these red-flag bills.

And I’m just telling you, I’m just sick and tired of legislators talking about how their hearts and their thoughts and prayers go out to these families when they’re doing nothing to prevent this gun violence in the first place. That’s where the metal meets the road and so until the legislature is prepared to do something about that, I don’t want to hear any more about thoughts and prayers!

I want to see some acts of gun violence prevention. There is too much access to these violent, to these weapons of mass destruction, that there’s too much access to guns, period. As a matter of fact, you know, even our lt. Governor, campaigned with a long gun, what kind of message does that send to the people of the commonwealth? And even our governor, when he was campaigning for office, said he wasn’t going to do anything about guns in Virginia. How are we going to ever prevent these mass shootings if we don’t do something to prevent this mass destruction of lives?

Watch above via CNN This Morning.