A new presidential forum has been announced: This one will be devoted to the American gun violence epidemic. It will take place on Oct. 2 and be open to any candidate who qualifies under Democratic National Committee guidelines for participation in the September debate.
The sponsors will be the Gabrielle Giffords-founded group named for her and March for our Lives, founded by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in 2018. Giffords is the former Democratic member of Congress who survived a 2011 assassination and mass-murder attempt that killed six and injured 18.
The forum will be held in Las Vegas, the site of a 2017 mass murder in which a gunman firing from the window of a high-rise hotel killed 58 people, injuring hundreds of others, during a country music festival.
In a statement, Giffords said the forum will "create an important opportunity for candidates concerned about gun violence to speak with voters about their plans to make our country a safer place to live, work, learn, and play." March for our Lives co-founder David Hogg expressed "hope that the candidates come to Las Vegas prepared to discuss bold and holistic plans, like restorative justice," to end the violence epidemic.
We won't know who will be attending the forum until we have the final list of candidates who have qualified for the September debate. It seems unlikely, however, that any Democratic contender who does make the September debate would dare skip this one.