Sen. Amy Klobuchar looked to set herself apart from other Democrats running for office on Monday by telling voters here in New Hampshire that she judges gun control bills by whether they would “hurt my Uncle Dick in the deer stand.”

Klobuchar, in an answer that found her touting her ties to rural Minnesota, grew emotional as she reflected on the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and the fact that the Senate couldn’t pass a gun control bill after the massacre.

“Like New Hampshire, Minnesota is a state that values the outdoors. We value hunting and fishing. And so I come at it from a little different place than some of my colleagues running for this office,” she said, adding that she doesn’t believe “banning assault weapons” and “common sense background checks” hurt her uncle in the deer stand.

Klobuchar choked up when she remembered working with the parents of children killed in Sandy Hook, especially when she had to tell them that a bill proposed by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey would not pass the Senate in the wake of the shooting.

“I remember one of the moms telling me, ’You know what? We know this wouldn’t have saved our babies, but it would have reduced domestic homicides, it would have reduced suicides and that’s why we are here,” Klobuchar said.

She added: “Those parents had the courage to come to Washington to advocate for something that wouldn’t save their babies. We should join the majority of Americans and actually many gun owners in having the courage to pass common sense gun safety legislation.”