Jill Biden leans into her personal experience, making an appeal against gun violence

Alexandria, Virginia CNN —

Dr. Jill Biden leaned into her personal experience as an educator and as first lady on Tuesday as she spoke out sharply against gun violence and called for further action.

“I don’t want to have to put my hand on another cross with an 8-year-old’s name. We have to change this,” Biden told advocates at the National Parent Teacher Association’s legislative conference.

Biden named several young victims of gun violence, using her platform to make a commonsense appeal on what’s long been a politically charged issue sparking deep division. There have been 70 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, and 2,036 since her husband, President Joe Biden, took office, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Jill Biden has typically joined the president when he’s visited communities in the aftermath of mass shootings, including the May 2022 massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

“The number of children that we have lost to gun violence is unfathomable. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story: they don’t tell us of their loved ones who must live with a black hole of grief inside of them who are ever-trapped in that gravity. They don’t tell us of the classmates or the co-workers who saw the blood, who heard the shots ring out, who wake up each night in a sweat, dreaming of running and running and running. Behind those numbers are the students who know how to hide before they can spell,” the first lady said.

She continued, “As a teacher, I’ve imagined the same in my own classroom more times than I can count. At the start of each semester – and I know all of you know this – the first day, I explain to my students what to do if the worst happens. We all feel the ripple effects.