--- description: The mother of an Orlando shooting victim took the stage to call for better gun-control policies at the Democratic convention. title: Read the Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim's Mother image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68f784165c758b04/69889fe3196cf4195803c9c8/christine-leinonen1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Democratic National Convention](/tag/democratic-national-convention/) ## Democratic National Convention Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Read the Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim's Mother by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 28, 2016 12:12 AM CUT  Christine Leinonen (C), mother of Christopher "Drew" Leinonen killed in the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida, is joined by Brandon Wolf (L) and Jose Arriagada who survived the attack during the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 27, 2016. Christine Leinonen (C), mother of Christopher "Drew" Leinonen killed in the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida, is joined by Brandon Wolf (L) and Jose Arriagada who survived the attack during the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 27, 2016.SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 28, 2016 12:12 AM CUT The mother of an Orlando shooting victim took the stage to call for better gun-control policies at the Democratic national convention on Wednesday. Christine Leinonen, the mother of Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, one of the 49 victims of the June shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub, said that when she was a state trooper she had to turn in her service weapon when she went into labor with her son. “The weapon that murdered my son fires 30 rounds in one minute. An Orlando city commissioner pointed out the terrible math. One minute per gun to fire so many shots, five minutes per bell to honor so many lives. I’m glad common-sense gun policy was in place when Christopher was born, but where was that common sense the day he died?” she asked. Flanked by [Jose Arriagada, Christopher’s ex-boyfriend and a survivor of the shooting, and Brandon Wolf, a friend of Christopher’s and another survivor](http://time.com/4426865/dnc-orlando-victim-speakers/ "undefined"), Leinonen added that her son was a supporter of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Leinonen’s speech received a standing ovation from the audience. Read her full remarks, as delivered: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4427581/dnc-christine-leinonen-orlando-shooting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4427581/dnc-christine-leinonen-orlando-shooting/"},"headline":"Read the Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim's Mother","datePublished":"2016-07-28T00:12:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:36:07.186Z","description":"The mother of an Orlando shooting victim took the stage to call for better gun-control policies at the Democratic convention.","url":"https://time.com/4427581/dnc-christine-leinonen-orlando-shooting/","keywords":["Democratic National Convention","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Gun Control","Guns","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68f784165c758b04/69889fe3196cf4195803c9c8/christine-leinonen1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68f784165c758b04/69889fe3196cf4195803c9c8/christine-leinonen1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Christine Leinonen (C), mother of Christopher \"Drew\" Leinonen killed in the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida, is joined by Brandon Wolf (L) and Jose Arriagada who survived the attack during the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo","caption":"Christine Leinonen (C), mother of Christopher \"Drew\" Leinonen killed in the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida, is joined by Brandon Wolf (L) and Jose Arriagada who survived the attack during the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo","creditText":"SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/democratic-national-convention/","name":"Democratic National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4427581/dnc-christine-leinonen-orlando-shooting/","name":"Read the Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim's Mother"}}]}] ```