--- title: The Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim’s Mother | TIME description: 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. canonical: https://time.com/video/HMfwihrQ/ og:title: The Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim’s Mother og:description: 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. og:url: https://time.com/video/HMfwihrQ/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HMfwihrQ/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim’s Mother twitter:description: 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. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HMfwihrQ/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim’s Mother > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim’s Mother [Watch (HLS stream): The Emotional Speech From an Orlando Victim’s Mother](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HMfwihrQ.m3u8) (1:15)  _Published 2016-07-28. 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._ --- Jul 27, 2023 8:31 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Orlando Officials Declare a Day of 'Love and Kindness' on Anniversary of Pulse Nightclub Shooting](/video/yTzKHHt7/) ### Orlando Officials Declare a Day of 'Love and Kindness' on Anniversary of Pulse Nightclub Shooting [911 Calls from Inside Pulse Nightclub](/video/bAdPDZkb/) ### 911 Calls from Inside Pulse Nightclub [Anderson Cooper Gives Emotional Tribute to Victims of the Orlando Shooting](/video/mkWabYpd/) ### Anderson Cooper Gives Emotional Tribute to Victims of the Orlando Shooting --- ## Transcript It takes about five minutes for a church bell to ring 49 times. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I know this because last month, my son Christopher. His boyfriend one and 47 others were murdered at a club in Orlando. Christopher's paternal grandparents met and fell in love in a Japanese internment camp. So it was in his DNA that love always trumps hate. [ APPLAUSE ] I'm glad common sense gun policy was in place the day Christopher was born. But where was that common sense the day he died. [ APPLAUSE ] I never want you to ask that question about your child that's why I support Hillary Clinton. 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