[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 112 (Tuesday, July 12, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4667-H4668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    LET'S PUT AN END TO GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Massachusetts (Ms. Tsongas) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. TSONGAS. Mr. Speaker, our Nation has been repeatedly confronted 
by senseless and tragic acts of gun violence; and now our country 
grieves with yet more heartache following the shocking and horrific 
attack in Dallas last week, an attack that took place during a peaceful 
protest where citizens were exercising their basic rights as Americans, 
as Dallas police officers supported and protected this fundamentally 
American right.
  As President Obama said: ``There is no possible justification for 
these kinds of attacks or any violence against law enforcement.''
  This event added to an already heartbreaking week, after the deaths 
of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana. 
Today, I am thinking of their families, friends, and loved ones, as I 
am of the 49 lost at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando just a month ago.
  I believe that law-abiding citizens have a constitutional right to 
own firearms, whether for sport or personal protection; but I also know 
that responsible personal freedom and public safety are not mutually 
exclusive.
  Shootings have become unacceptably commonplace in our country, and 
Congress has a responsibility to do more to keep guns out of the hands 
of criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill. In 
fact, recent polls show that support for universal background checks 
hovers around 90 percent.
  No other developed country in the world has the same rate of gun 
violence as the United States. According to United Nations data, the 
gun homicide rate in our country is more than 7 times that of Sweden, 6 
times that of Canada, and, unbelievably, 21 times that of Australia.
  As President Obama stated, following the shooting in Oregon: ``We are 
the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass 
shootings every few months.''
  I agree with Dallas Police Chief David Brown when he said that police 
departments cannot be expected to solve our Nation's gun violence 
problem by themselves. As policymakers, we must be doing more. We 
should all be inspired by Chief Brown's commitment and willingness to 
work through personal heartbreak toward a more just and violence-free 
society.
  Chief Brown's urgency is echoed in letters I have received from young 
people in my district. Headlines in our communities and those that make 
national news do not go unnoticed by our Nation's youngest citizens, 
children who are growing up with heightened fear, some even afraid to 
go to school.
  Abbey, age 13, from Gardner, Massachusetts, wrote to me: ``Every 
single day at school, I am scared an armed intruder will come in,'' 
going on to say that ``the amount of gun violence in our country is 
piling up, and we need to stop it.''
  Andrew, a high school freshman from Dracut, wrote: ``I have been 
noticing there are more shootings lately, maybe because I am getting 
old and paying more attention to what is happening around me than I did 
before.'' Imagine, at 14, he is feeling old as he watches our news.
  Miriam, from Acton, wrote: ``I am only 17 years old, so this current 
climate of fear and violence is all I have ever known. However, I know 
that this amount and frequency of bloodshed is not and should not be 
normal.''
  As a mother, grandmother, and American citizen, it is unconscionable 
that our children and grandchildren are growing up in a world where 
they see mass shooting after mass shooting, met only by a moment of 
silence on this floor.
  Mr. Speaker, in Congress, we have a moral responsibility to pursue 
change.

[[Page H4668]]

We must address the senseless violence and injustice afflicting our 
Nation with ``the fierce urgency of now,'' to quote the Reverend Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. Our call to action is made more painful and 
more real with each passing day.
  Mr. Speaker, bring a vote to the floor on commonsense, universal 
background check legislation that will keep guns out of the hands of 
terrorists, criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally 
ill.

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