Jewish congressman from Highland Park is ‘holding on to the anger’ to act on gun control
Brad Schneider, a moderate Democrat from Ilinois, said he’s ‘hopeful’ that members of Congress will join forces to ban assault weapons
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) speaks about his experiences during a trip to Israel and Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of a bipartisan delegation on Jan. 28, 2020. Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh July 6, 2022
Rep. Brad Schneider, a Jewish Democrat who represents Highland Park, the Chicago suburb where a mass shooter killed seven people on July 4, said in an interview that he’s “holding on to the anger” and shock he feels over the incident and will use it to push for gun control in Congress.
Highland Park is home to a significant Jewish population. Those killed include four Jews. Authorities said they do not have any indication that Robert E. Crimo III, who lived in the area and confessed Wednesday afternoon, was motivated by bigotry against any particular racial or religious group.
“My heart is breaking to see this community suffer like so many communities across America as a result of mass shootings,” Schneider said.
The four-term congressman, who is a member of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, said that as he grieves with the community, he is “hopeful” that Republicans and Democrats will join forces to pass gun control legislation. He described assault rifles, which were used in the Highland Park and other recent mass shootings, as “weapons of war that don’t belong on our streets.”
“We need to do more,” he added, “we need to address the underlying issue at core – which is the issue of guns.”
Schneider, who recently relocated to Highland Park from neighboring Deerfield, said he did not personally know the victims — Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; Eduardo Uvaldo, 69; Katherine Goldstein, 64; Irina McCarthy, 35; Kevin McCarthy, 37; Jacki Sundheim, 63; and Stephen Straus, 88. He described the Jewish community north of Chicago as very diverse and tightknit. “We are all one degree of separation of the victims,” he said.
He added that his 27-year-old son, who now lives in California, called him up “sobbing” the moment he heard the news of the shooting because he knew the community growing up. Years ago, Schneider’s district office was in the plaza where the shooting occurred.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward An elite Jewish society at Yale fractures over its director’s embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
-
News Trump would eliminate antisemitism envoy in proposed State Department overhaul
-
News Harvard’s Jewish president, in new lawsuit, says Trump crackdown has ‘nothing to do’ with fighting antisemitism
-
News Pope Francis, who advanced church’s relationships with Jews, dies at 88
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to a Jewish society at Yale exposed deep rifts between US Jews
-
Fast Forward On his first trip to Auschwitz, New Jersey governor urges vigilance against rising antisemitism
-
Fast Forward Survivors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7 embrace at Auschwitz, marking annual March of the Living
-
Fast Forward Could changes at the FDA call the kosher status of milk into question? Many are asking.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.