This week, Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk announced plans to name a bipartisan gun safety bill after the Chicago teen.
“Today, I sat down with Illinois families who lost loved ones due to senseless gun violence,” Kirk said in a statement released Wednesday. “I asked Cleopatra Pendleton, mother of 15-year-old Hadiya who was shot and killed by gang gunfire in Chicago, for permission to name anti-illegal gun trafficking legislation after her daughter.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, a Kirk spokesman said Hadiya’s parents were “receptive” to the idea of naming the bill for their daughter and added: “We will work with them on it.”
The Hadiya Pendleton bill would aim to make gun trafficking a federal crime and to end so-called straw purchases of guns in order to dry up the supply of guns to what he termed “dangerous drug gangs.” A straw purchase occurs when someone buys a gun on behalf of another person, usually someone who could not pass a federal background check.
