Politics

Mother of Orlando shooting victim brings crowd to tears with DNC speech

Christine Leinonen, whose son was killed in the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, is embraced by attack survivors Brandon Wolf (left) and Jose Arraigada (right) on the Democratic National Convention stage. Mike Segar / Reuters

By Amanda Hoover

July 27, 2016

1 minute to read

The mother of an Orlando shooting victim addressed the Democratic National Convention Wednesday evening in a poignant speech calling for stricter gun policy that brought the crowd to tears.

“It takes about five minutes for a church bell to ring 49 times,” Christine Leinonen said. “I know this because last month, my son Christopher, his boyfriend Juan, and 47 others were murdered at a club in Orlando.”

Leinonen’s only child was killed in the June shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. The shooter, Omar Mateen, legally purchased the weapons, which included an assault rifle that fired 24 shots in nine seconds.

“An Orlando city commissioner pointed out the terrible math,” Leinonen said. “One minute for a gun to fire so many shots, five minutes for a bell to honor so many lives.”

Leinonen was one of several speakers who addressed the crowd on the subject of gun violence, along with Erica Smegielski, the daughter of Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung killed in the 2013 shooting, and Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, two survivors of the Charleston shooting.

Leinonen was a Michigan State Police trooper at the time she had her son, she said. When she went into labor and arrived at the hospital, staff locked her gun in a safe.

“I didn’t argue,” she said. “I know that common sense gun policies save lives.”

But those policies weren’t in place the day that her son died, Leinonen said.

“I’m glad common sense gun policy was in place the day Christopher was born, but where was that common sense the day that he died?” she said. “I never want you to ask that question about your child. That’s why I support Hillary Clinton.”