WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden delivered a moving tribute to the Sandy Hook victims Wednesday night, sharing his experience losing his own children with the families gathered in Washington.
"We now belong to a lousy club. A lousy, stinking club where as a parent, for whatever reason, you have a child pre-decease you," Biden said. "I don't think there's anything more difficult to deal with than that."
Biden spoke at a fundraiser for Sandy Hook Promise, a group that advocates for gun violence-prevention measures. It was founded by some of the families who lost loved ones in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
Biden spoke as Democratic senators, led by Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, were holding a filibuster on the Senate floor, promising to keep talking until their colleagues agreed to do something about gun violence. They said Congress couldn't go on as usual after the weekend massacre in Orlando, Florida, in which 49 people lost their lives.
Senate Democrats want a vote to keep guns out of the hands of terror suspects, and a vote on expanding background checks. When Biden mentioned the filibuster efforts, the crowd at the fundraiser applauded.
Biden also spoke about his own efforts in Congress on gun control, noting that the last time there was an assault weapons ban was in the crime bill he authored in 1994. It expired after 10 years, during the presidency of George W. Bush.
"Had Al Gore ... won that election -- I think he won it anyway -- had Al Gore won that election, a lot would be different," Biden said, referring to the 2000 election. "We'd still have that in place. God only knows how many lives would be changed."
Watch Biden's full speech:
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