[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 144 (Thursday, September 11, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1763]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1763]]


       THE DAILY 45: 118 YOUNG MALES LOST TO GUN VIOLENCE IN D.C.

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                           HON. BOBBY L. RUSH

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 11, 2008

  Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, the Department of Justice tells us that, 
every day, 45 people, on average, are fatally shot in the United 
States. In August, D.C. police were investigating the circumstances 
surrounding the murder of victims number 117 and 118, just two of the 
latest to die this year due to gun-related violence.
  These murders occurred just north of Union Station in the vacant, 
dilapidated Temple Courts high-rise and townhouses. This is an area to 
be razed in the coming months, and although a new structure will rise--
erasing the tragic events that lead to their deaths; these two young 
men, and dozens of others like them, had names and families and hopes 
and dreams of their own.
  Victim no. 117, JohnQuan Wright, was only 18 years old. And 1 month 
later--victim 118's name has yet to be released. While their deaths 
were acknowledged in passing via the press, there remains little to no 
outcry that more than a hundred victims, most of them young men in the 
prime of their lives, have been lost to violence--most of it with a 
gun--this year in Washington, DC.
  Americans of conscious must come together to stop the senseless death 
of ``The Daily 45.'' When will we say ``enough is enough, stop the 
killing!''

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