[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 114 (Thursday, July 14, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H4986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, AND WHY

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, in the course of these 1-minutes, of which 
there have been over 50, thank you, Mr. Cicilline, for bringing us 
together once again on the steps of the Capitol a couple of nights ago 
and now here in the Chamber.
  When we are in school and they ask us to write about something, they 
say: Answer these questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why?
  Who? Little children in Newtown, young people in Orlando, churchgoers 
in South Carolina, moviegoers in Colorado, again and again. The list 
goes on and on as to the vulnerability.
  What? What? What? Slaughter of people. Mr. Thompson has repeated the 
numbers over and over again. But 91 people killed every night on the 
streets of our country, and we had 91 people in orange shirts on the 
steps of the Capitol last week to mention that. Over 1,000 mass murders 
since Newtown, mass murders being described as over four people being 
killed in any one instance.
  What? What? What? Violence on the streets of our city, and even in 
our churches and other.
  Who? What? When? Every day. Every single day with greater frequency 
and intensity. Most recently, in Dallas. So sad. An assassination of 
five police officers. Many of us spoke to that in the course of the 
last few days.
  Where? All over the country. I just mentioned Dallas, and I mentioned 
some other venues earlier. All over the country, every single day.
  But the main question is, Why? Why is this happening? Mayor Rawlings 
of Dallas was very eloquent in his comments when he said: We must 
address the root causes of this. Yes.
  But why are these guns so readily available? Because Congress will 
not act--refuses to act--on passing commonsense gun violence prevention 
legislation. No fly, no buy. Almost everyone in our country supports 
that--Republicans, Democrats, Independents, gun owners, NRA members.
  Not the NRA. The NRA stands between any commonsense solutions and 
this Congress, which I think they own.
  Why? Because some people think their political survival is more 
important than survival of little kids in kindergarten in Newtown.
  Why is it happening in kindergarten classes? in churches? in places 
of recreation for young people? in theaters? in bowling alleys? You 
name it, it has happened there.
  Why? Because we have not fully impressed upon the American people 
their role in lobbying Congress to make a difference. We are limited in 
what we can ask people to do vis-a-vis Congress, but they are unlimited 
in their advocacy and in their capacity. Nothing is more eloquent to a 
Member of Congress than the voice of his or her own constituents.
  As John Lewis, our beautiful icon who has led us in all of this, has 
said: What we have to do is convince the average Joe--that would be J-O 
or J-O-E--of their power to make the difference in our country by 
making their voices heard to Members of Congress who have the power to 
vote for legislation.
  We ask over and over again for the Speaker to give us a vote because 
we believe and have confidence in the American people that their voices 
will be heard and not ignored again and again and again and again by 
the Republicans in Congress, but will give us a vote that will make 
America safer and help us to honor--to honor--our oath of office to 
protect and defend the American people.
  This has gone into the realm of hate crimes. The same thing in South 
Carolina. The same thing in Orlando. It must end.
  But our message is clear: we will not end until this is over, until 
we get commonsense gun violence prevention legislation passed by the 
Congress of the United States.
  I thank all of my colleagues for what they are doing. Our whip, Mr. 
Hoyer, is leader on the floor for us. Thank you for orchestrating this 
with Mr. Cicilline and so many others. I thank my colleagues for making 
the voices of their constituents heard here.

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