Gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, left the stage during a forum on Monday after Republican State Rep. Jeanne Ives argued the solution to gun violence in Illinois was having “more fathers in the home.”
“The problem is the gun violence in this city of Chicago, predominantly. And you know how you’re going to solve it? Fathers in the home,” Ives said according to the Chicago Tribune.
Kennedy has made gun violence a top priority in his campaign and recently called out Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as having a strategy in place to support gentrification.
“I believe that black people are being pushed out of Chicago intentionally by a strategy that involves disinvestment in communities being implemented by the city administration, and I believe Rahm Emanuel is the head of the city administration and therefore needs to be held responsible for those outcomes,” Kennedy said.
Ives was the lone Republican candidate attending the event, which featured the leading Democratic candidates for governor. It was held by the Community Renewal Society, a progressive and faith-based group, at Old St. Patrick’s Church in the West Loop Gate neighborhood.
“It hit a very special nerve for me,” Kennedy said in an interview with NBC 5. “I lost my father to someone with a gun. For someone to say simply the solution is to have a father-in-law – I don’t know. How shall I react? What should my family have done?”
You can learn more about Chris Kennedy’s campaign on his site here
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