[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 28, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H1438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Kelly) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, a gunman walked into 
a mall in Columbia, Maryland, and opened fire, killing two people 
before taking his own life. Prior to the mall shooting, we saw six 
school shootings take place nationwide in just 10 days.
  Countless other Americans are terrorized each day on streets that 
have become shooting galleries where kids aren't safe to walk to school 
or go to the corner store or sit on their front porches. And yet we do 
nothing.
  Time and time again, despite the headlines and the bloodshed and the 
pleas from the parents of the victims to act, Congress has failed to 
pass commonsense gun reforms that would save thousands of American 
lives, including background checks, which are supported by 90 percent 
of Americans.

                              {time}  1045

  Somehow, in the years between Columbine and Newtown, we have 
developed a collective indifference to the killings. After each 
shooting, we are in disbelief; but then we shrug and move on, 
dismissing the mass shootings as isolated incidents and ignoring the 
everyday shootings altogether.
  Sadly, a callus has formed where our compassion should be. Or is it 
that the gun lobby's agenda has taken the place of our country's 
conscience?
  I am at a loss because I truly do not understand how we can continue 
to ignore the public health epidemic that is gun violence in America. 
What will it take? How many more must die? How many parents must weep 
before we do the right thing?
  Make no mistake, gun violence is robbing us of a generation. It is a 
slow-motion plague that is killing our kids one day at a time.
  In the Chicagoland area, gun violence has claimed some of our best 
and our brightest, like 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot and 
killed a year ago this week while standing in a park with friends. You 
may remember, she was killed a week after performing for President 
Obama's inauguration.
  She was certainly one of my district's shining stars. But she was, by 
far, not the only one. There were many Hadiyas, young people with 
promise and potential who were felled by gun violence. They had family 
and friends who loved them, communities who mourned them, and they are:
  Eva Casara, 17; Tyrone Lawson, 17; Maurice Knowles, 16; Darnell 
Williams, 17; Abdullah Trull, 16; Leonard Anderson, 17; Jaleel Pearson, 
18; Malcolm Whitney, 16; Fearro Denard, 18; Tyshon Anderson, 18; Tyrone 
Hart, 18; Ashaya Miller, 15; Equiel Velasquez, 17; Christopher Lattin, 
Jr., 15; Rey Donantas, 14; Victor Vegas, 15; Tyrone Lawson, 17; Antonio 
Fenner, 16; Frances Colon, 18; Jorge Valdez-Benitez, 18; Oscar Marquez, 
17; Jonyla Watkins, 6 months; Arrell Monegan, 16; Victor Damian, 15; 
Clifton Barney, 17; Miguel Delaluz, 17; Leetema Daniels, 17; Fearro 
Denard, 18; Patrick Sykes, 15; Dionte Maxwell, 18; Miguel Villegas, 15; 
April McDaniel, 18; Fernando Mondragon, 18; Kevin Rivera, 16; Ricardo 
Herrera, 17; and Alexander Lagunas, 18.
  Mr. Speaker, I stand here in honor of their memories, asking my 
colleagues to get serious about gun reform and to pass legislation to 
help them stem the tide of shootings in this country. I hope one day 
never to have to add another name to that list.

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