[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 102 (Wednesday, June 24, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H4607]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RECOGNIZING THE VICTIMS OF THE CHARLESTON SHOOTING

  (Mr. DEUTCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the victims of the 
tragic shooting last week in Charleston: Reverend Clementa Pinckney, 
Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, 
Myra Thompson, Daniel Simmons, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, and Cynthia 
Hurd. My thoughts and prayers are with their families.
  And I congratulate South Carolina for trying to lower the Confederate 
flag. It is the right thing to do.
  But we don't stop these tragedies by retiring a racist relic. We stop 
them by fixing our broken gun laws, gun laws that are failing to keep 
guns out of the hands of those who seek to do us harm.
  To fix them, Congress must act. But what has our response been? 
Silence: silence after Aurora, silence after Tucson, silence after 
Newtown, silence after daily acts of gun violence.
  Mr. Speaker, America should never accept all this mourning, all this 
heartbreak, and all this gun violence. And shame on this United States 
Congress if we remain silent after Charleston.

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