Gurudwara victim’s son is running for the first Congressional district.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The son of one of the victims of last year’s tragic shooting at a gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin is making a bid for Congress.
Amardeep Kaleka, the son of slain shooting victim Satwant Singh Kaleka, is running for the US Congress seat in the first Congressional district, which is currently occupied by Republican House Budget Chairman and recent Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan. In an interview with the Associated Press, Kaleka states that he blames the GOP for the partial government shutdown, and wants to increase the amount of governmental transparency and accountability so that America can move towards having a more peaceful society.
Another key component of Kaleka’s vision is to crack down on gun ownership. That cause has many allies in the Democratic Party — perhaps none more than President Barack Obama, who has taken up the gun control flag numerous times throughout his presidency — but is one of the cornerstone of conservative political rhetoric.
The 35 year-old, who is a filmmaker, voiced a common-sense approach to government in the interview, saying that many of his views — such as simply not allowing someone with a criminal record who can’t pass a background check to not own a gun — is something so simple that “90% of the nation agrees [with it].”
Kaleka also pointed to Europe as an example of a place where certain countries, according to his research, are economically prosperous and very “peaceful,” meaning that they aren’t waging wars and have a relatively small number of violent crimes.
Kaleka will be fighting an uphill battle, however, as Ryan has had little trouble defending his Congressional seat last year despite being on the road with Mitt Romney for the 2012 Presidential campaign, to comfortably win his eighth term in office.
On August 5th of last year, a white supremacist fired shots inside a Sikh gurudwara outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing six innocent people in the process. The supremacist was identified as Wade Michael Page, who committed suicide at the scene after being shot in the stomach by one of the responding police officers. Earlier this year, at the one year commemoration of the tragedy, Ryan spoke out against the “senseless act of violence” and commended the Oak Creek community for coming together in support of each other.