Face of Nation : Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang was overcome with emotion at a forum in Iowa on Saturday after a woman in the audience opened up about her family’s tragic experience with gun violence.
“My beautiful 4-year-old daughter Dayla was struck by a stray bullet” in March 2011, Stephanie Pizzoferrato said at the Every town for Gun Safety event in Des Moines. “My son ― my daughter’s twin brother ― witnessed what happened that day. She died two days later.”
Pizzoferrato, a Las Vegas resident, then asked Yang what he would do as president to address unintentional shootings by children, noting that firearms are the second leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the U.S. Before answering the question, the businessman thanked Pizzoferrato and asked if he could give her a hug.
Yang said he would push for more Americans to upgrade their firearms to “personalized” guns, also known as “smart guns.” These types of firearms use technology such as fingerprint readers or other biometric sensors to prevent unauthorized users from firing them.
“If we can convince Americans that personalized guns are a good idea then … if the child gets ahold of the gun then they can’t do anything with it,” he said. “Then it just becomes a very heavy, expensive prop. One of my proposals is to actually help gun owners upgrade their guns to personalized guns free of charge.”
Before moving on to the next question, he addressed Pizzoferrato’s experience once more.The Iowa forum follows multiple mass shootings across the country in recent weeks, including at a food festival in Gilroy, California, where two of the three people killed were children.
