[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 22, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4062-H4063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EPIDEMIC OF GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Kelly) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today heartbroken and 
angered once again by the rampant epidemic of gun violence plaguing our 
Nation. Gun violence is on the rise across the country. I am not just 
talking about the tragic mass shootings that grip our collective 
attention. I am talking about the everyday shootings that go undetected 
by the national media.
  Last year, gun deaths became the number one killer of youths aged 16-
24. We are on track to break this record in 2016.
  Just this past Father's Day weekend, 41 people were shot--13 of them 
fatally--in Chicago. The shootings in those 60 hours claimed the city's 
300th recorded homicide this year. This is the list of the names of the 
people who have lost their lives to gun violence. I don't have enough 
time to name every name.
  Amari Brown, 7 years old, was the youngest. He was shot in the back.
  In 2016 alone, more than 1,800 people have been shot across Chicago.
  Among this weekend's victims was 3-year-old Devon Quinn. On Sunday, 
Devon was riding with his father to pick up his mother from work when a 
hail of bullets hit their car. Devon is still hospitalized.
  Devon's story is, unfortunately, all too common in communities like 
some of the ones that I represent, where a trip down the street to a 
convenience store or a gas station could end in tragedy.
  I am tired of hearing stories like this. It saddens me and angers me 
each time I speak with constituents and hear their all too familiar 
story of losing a loved one to gun violence. I am frustrated not only 
because we are losing an entire generation to gun violence, but because 
so many of these deaths were preventable if Congress had just had the 
courage to take action.
  Sadly, we don't even talk about gun deaths until it is forced into 
our lives with another tragic mass shooting. When this happens, we give 
our fiery speeches, hold our moments of silence, and then we wait for 
the national buzz to fade. It is a shameful and disrespectful ritual 
that proves that Congress has little to no plans to truly honor the 
lives of gun violence victims.
  This weekend on ``Meet the Press,'' the Speaker gave his fellow 
Republicans a pass to ``vote their conscience'' with respect to their 
Presidential support. I ask the Speaker to give his colleagues a pass 
when it comes to voting on backgrounds checks, which 90 percent of 
Americans support.
  With each shooting, we are quick to say that it is a mental health 
problem, it is a family problem, it is a terror problem. But somehow it 
is never a gun problem.
  It is time we look at the common denominator and accept that the root 
of the problem is about how guns get into the hands of those seeking to 
do harm.
  Prayer and reflection brings comfort to those who mourn, but 
scripture of all faiths teaches that prayer must be met by good deeds. 
Silence without action is deafening.
  The majority of the American people want greater action. They want to 
close the gun show and online loopholes that allow people to purchase

[[Page H4063]]

guns without a background check. They want medical experts and their 
government to research this plague of gun violence for what it is: a 
public health crisis. They want to keep guns out of the hands of 
terrorists on the no-fly list.
  Why is it that when someone poses a credible national security 
threat, we ensure that they cannot fly on a plane, but they can still 
purchase a firearm?
  With each second that passes without action, we are risking another 
Devon Quinn, another Hadiya Pendleton, another Blair Holt. We are 
risking another Orlando, another Sandy Hook, another Virginia Tech.
  So I ask my colleagues: Just who exactly has to die and how many 
before we finally put an end to this? Just how many birthdays, Father's 
Days, Mother's Days must go uncelebrated? How many would-be graduations 
must pass? How many empty chairs at a kitchen table must there be 
before we show courage and say ``enough'' and take action to pass 
measures that keep us safe instead of going on with our violence?
  It is deafening. Bring these bills to the floor.

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