[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 108 (Wednesday, July 6, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H4286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Cardenas) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CARDENAS. Mr. Speaker, once again, we are on this floor, many of 
us just asking--just asking--Congress to do its job, just asking 
Congress to act.
  Just a few minutes ago, an American woman was standing right here on 
the steps of our Capitol--your Capitol, America--and she was talking 
about how she has never talked publicly about the incident that took 
her 10-year-old daughter's life, about a man who should not have been 
able to buy a gun.
  He went online and bought a 9-millimeter handgun. He came to her 
home, broke into the backdoor and said that he was going to kill her. 
She ran for her 10-year-old daughter to flee from this man, and in the 
process, she was shot, and so was her daughter. She told the gruesome 
story about how her daughter died in her arms--her 10-year-old little 
girl.
  But, ladies and gentlemen, that is the story of 32,000 families every 
year in our great Nation. Many of you may be thinking: Well, I live in 
a small town somewhere where everybody knows each other; that is not 
going to happen.
  I am sorry. It happens everywhere.
  Some people might think: Well, that just happens in the big cities 
like Chicago.
  I am sorry, ladies and gentlemen, it happens in every ZIP Code around 
the country.
  We are less safe today, ladies and gentlemen, than we have ever been 
in America. Today, there are more weapons--firearms--in America than 
there are people. More than 320 million Americans live in our great 
Nation, and there are more than 320 million guns across America.
  There are reasons why we are less safe today than we have ever been 
before in America, and it is not because of terrorists. It is because 
Congress refuses to act.
  Let me give you an example.
  In 1996, the United States Congress banned the Centers for Disease 
Control from studying gun violence and also said that you will not--you 
shall not--give our best minds in our greatest universities the grants 
they would need to actually find out why are so many people dying. What 
are the reasons why that is happening? So Congress refuses to be 
informed. Congress literally, on this issue, has chosen to remain 
ignorant on purpose, and that contributes to 10-year-old little girls 
who die because a man went online and bought a gun and there were no 
background checks.
  Most Americans believe that, for God's sake, a background check is 
sensible. Why not? But yet Congress refuses to have a vote on the floor 
of this House so that we could debate that issue and then vote it up or 
down.
  Every Member of this House who runs for office utters the words, 
``public safety is my number one issue.'' I do, and so does every 
person who runs for office. Every person who gets elected to this House 
of Congress gets elected for a 2-year term. That means that, in the 
time that we get sworn in on the floor of this prestigious House, by 
the time we run for office--and if we are fortunate enough to get 
elected again--more than 60,000 Americans will die due to gun violence 
in those 2 years.
  That doesn't make sense. I would hope and think that we are electing 
people to do sensible things, to do things the right way, and to do 
things that are right for America that will keep us safe. All we are 
asking for, ladies and gentlemen, is to have a vote on sensible laws 
that would help keep our streets safer.
  I announced on this floor that I am now a grandfather. It is such a 
beautiful feeling. But in my lifetime, my children's lifetime, and now 
in my grandson's lifetime, our streets are not safer.
  Ladies and gentlemen, let's demand that our Speaker allow a vote on 
sensible gun legislation in this House.

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