[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 124 (Thursday, September 19, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GUN VIOLENCE FOLLOWING THE WASHINGTON NAVY YARD SHOOTING
(Mr. MORAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, just about a mile from here, once
again, our Nation experienced a horrific incidence of mass gun
violence. Our sympathies obviously go out to the friends and the
families who lost loved ones in the shooting at the Washington Navy
Yard.
But as this chart shows, this mass shooting is only the latest in a
long line that includes Columbine and Virginia Tech and Tucson and
Aurora and Newtown. But even these horrendous mass killings don't fully
reflect our Nation's problem with gun violence.
Each year, 100,000 people in America are shot by a gun, 30,000 die
from a gun-related injury, 10,000 are murdered by a firearm. By 2015,
gun-related deaths will surpass auto-related deaths for the first time.
And while it's too early to know what might have prevented this
week's mass shooting, we do know what will ensure that it will happen
again--doing nothing, business as usual.
The chief medical officer at MedStar Hospital expressed the
sentiments of many when she pleaded:
There's something evil in our society that we, as
Americans, all have to work to try and eradicate.
If we don't do all we can to reduce gun violence through stronger
laws and improved services, all we'll have to offer our constituents
are only more condolences.
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