Entrepreneur and Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang broke down in tears on Saturday at a gun control forum in Des Moines after a woman told him her child had been killed by a stray bullet.
“I have a three and six-year-old boy and I was imagining if one of them got shot,” Yang said before choking up and crying.
The CNN video cuts out and then starts again when Yang has composed himself.
“That scene that you described — I’m sorry — it’s like very, very affecting,” Yang said, and then addressed the woman’s question about people having guns in the house.
“You’re right that when there’s a gun in the household you’re more likely to have a child get shot or the owner get shot than to kill, let’s say, an intruder into the house,” Yang said. “Those are just numbers; those are just the facts.”
One of Yang’s sons is on the autism spectrum and he has included the issue in his campaign platform:
One of my boys is on the autism spectrum—I know how invaluable resources and intervention can be, particularly if adopted early on. Families struggle with this in very personal ways. As a country, we should provide ample resources to parents to be able to intervene to support the development of children with autism or who are exceptional in other ways. Many of these children have something unique to offer.
Yang, 44, and his wife Evelyn have been married since 2011.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter