Connecticut Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, who represents an area of the state that includes Newtown, will be in attendance Tuesday night during President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address.
Appearing on WNPR's Where We Live, Esty praised the president's executive actions announced last week.
In particular, Esty praised the requirement that all people who sell firearms -- whether in a store, at a gun show, or online -- must run a background check on customers.
Esty said that she is tired of the criticism that these actions won't prevent all gun violence. She said there's no such thing as a perfect law.
"We still have murders; we still have rapes," Esty said. "We don't give up on our laws because they don't stop all bad behavior. So I'm really frustrated with this narrative that one particular proposal might not have stopped one horrible death. That's not the way we legislate. We're supposed to legislate over the totality of it."
Esty said that 33,000 Americans died from gun violence last year, including suicide deaths. She also said that measures like universal background checks make sense.
Obama's State of the Union speech begins at 9:00 pm EST on Tuesday night.
Heather Brandon and Tucker Ives contributed to this report.
