Hillary Clinton, Orlando mayor search for solutions at Indy conference
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Two-hundred mayors from across the country were in Indy this weekend to talk about how to make their cities better, and they even got a chance to hear from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors came exactly two weeks after the shooting in Orlando, resulting in much of the conference focusing on public safety and reducing gun violence.
Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer also addressed the mayors on Sunday.
“On behalf of everyone that calls Orlando home, please allow me to thank you,” Dyer said. “We’re healing already, and we think we did a pretty good response, and we’re not going to be defined by the acts that happened that night, other than from the heroic police officers. So our city and our community has responded with love compassion and unity and I’m very proud of them.
But the meeting was about action and preventing these tragedies from happening again.
Keynote speaker Hillary Clinton called for tighter gun control.
“No person should be gunned down while learning, teaching, praying or dancing,” the former secretary of state said.
But everything was on the table, and everyone had a seat.
“Good ideas don’t just get hatched in big cities,” Frank Cownie, the mayor of Des Moines, Iowa, said.
Tackling big issues like gun violence is common for the meeting. President John F. addressed the Conference in the 1960’s during the civil rights movement.
“On your return from this conference you can set an example in your communities to which the timid can rally and which those clinging to the past cannot ignore,” Kennedy said in a video that highlighted the group’s accomplishments.
The conference has addressed LGBT rights, the AIDS crisis and now, in the wake of the Orlando massacre, gun violence and terrorism.
“Conversations about problems are not always pleasant, but these are issues — including gun violence in our cities — that we need to talk about,” Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard said.
Donald Trump was invited to attend the conference but declined.
On Monday, Gary Johnson, the Libertarian presidential nominee, will address the mayors.
Earlier Sunday, the Dalai Lama spoke at the conference. He praised the United States for its technological innovations and commitment to freedom. The Dalai Lama was joined by Lady Gaga for a Q&A on Sunday morning.