[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 157 (Monday, October 2, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1304-E1305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





 EXPRESSING CONDOLENCES FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE SENSELESS MASS SHOOTING 
                          IN LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 2, 2017

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my condolences to the 
victims of the Las Vegas country music show mass shooting massacre.
  I offer my deepest condolences to those personally affected by this 
cowardly act, and call for the restoration of federal law banning the 
sale and purchase of assault weapons and large capacity ammunition 
feeding devices.
  On October 1, 2017 the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the 
United States occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada when, in a heinous act of 
terror and hatred, 58 persons were killed and 515 others were injured 
in a shooting at an outdoor concert near the Mandalay Bay Resort and 
Casino in Las Vegas.
  Until yesterday, June 13, 2016 marked the deadliest mass shooting in 
the history of the United States in Orlando, Florida, when, in another 
heinous act of terror and hatred, 49 persons were killed at Pulse, a 
popular nightclub, meeting place, and sanctuary for Central Florida's 
vibrant and dynamic LGBTQ community; sadly, the Las Vegas mass shooting 
surpassed that dreadful shooting in numbers of dead and injured.
  The horrifying events in Las Vegas on Sunday night mark the 273rd 
mass shooting in the U.S. in the 275 days that have passed so far in 
2017, according to Gun Violence Archive.
  Mass shootings are a near daily occurrence in America, but what 
happened in Las Vegas stands out: It was the deadliest such incident in 
U.S. history, with more than 58 killed and 515 injured.
  Including that massacre, the four deadliest U.S. mass shootings have 
occurred over the past 10 years.
  A mass shooting is defined by Gun Violence Archive as any incident in 
which four or more are shot and/or killed in a single event, at the 
same general time and location not including the shooter.
  Recent U.S. mass shootings include:
  1. Las Vegas, 2017: 50+ killed
  2. Orlando, 2016: 50 killed
  3. Virginia Tech, 2007: 32 killed
  4. Sandy Hook, 2012: 27 killed
  5. San Ysirdo, 1984: 21 killed
  6. San Bernadino, 2015: 14 killed
  7. Edmond, 1986: 14 killed
  8. Fort Hood, 2009: 13 killed
  9. Columbine, 1999: 13 killed
  There have been more than 11,600 deaths linked to gun violence so far 
in 2017, which is roughly equivalent to nearly four 9/11 attacks in 
terms of the total number killed on September 11, 2001.
  Comparatively, more than 15 thousand were killed by gun violence in 
2016, and there were 383 mass shootings.
  It is horrifying to admit that gun violence now seems to be a staple 
of American life.
  The United States ranks No. 1 in the world in terms of firearms per 
capita--with 88.8 guns per 100 people--and it has the highest homicide-
by-firearm rate in the developed world.
  The problem is so endemic that gun violence is now the third leading 
cause of death for children in the U.S.
  An average of 1,297 children die annually from gun-related injuries.
  Guns are linked to roughly 33 thousand deaths in the U.S. per year; 
about two-thirds of them are suicides.
  According to Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans (across 
partisan lines) support gun policy proposals such as barring people 
with mental illnesses from buying guns; prohibiting gun purchases by 
people on federal no-fly or watch lists; and background checks for 
private gun sales and sales at gun shows.
  The majority must cut its close ties to the powerful gun lobby to 
facilitate useful gun control legislation necessary immediately.
  America has six times as many firearm homicides as Canada, and nearly 
16 times as many as Germany.
  United Nations data shows that America far and away leads other 
developed countries when it comes to gun-related homicides.
  America has 4.4 percent of the world's population, but almost half of 
the civilian-owned guns around the world.
  In December 2012, a gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School 
in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 20 children, six adults, and 
himself.
  Since then, there have been at least 1,518 mass shootings, with at 
least 1,715 people killed and 6,089 wounded.
  The fairly broad definition of ``mass shooting'' includes not only 
shootings in which four or more people were murdered, but shootings in 
which four or more people were shot at all (excluding the shooter).
  Even under this broad definition, mass shootings make up a tiny 
portion of America's firearm deaths, which totaled more than 33,000 in 
2014.
  On average, there is more than one mass shooting for each day in 
America.
  Whenever a mass shooting occurs, supporters of gun rights often argue 
that it is inappropriate to bring up political debates about gun 
control in the aftermath of a tragedy.
  For example, former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a strong 
supporter of gun rights, criticized former President Barack Obama for 
``trying to score cheap political points'' when Obama mentioned gun 
control after a mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
  But if this argument is followed to its logical end, then it will 
never be the right time to discuss mass shootings.
  Under the broader definition of mass shootings, America has nearly 
one mass shooting a day.
  So if Congress is forced to wait for a time when there is not a mass 
shooting to talk gun control, Congress could find itself waiting for a 
very long time.
  States with more guns have more gun deaths.
  Within the United States, a wide array of empirical evidence 
indicates that more guns in a community leads to more homicide.
  Higher populations, more stress, more immigrants, and more mental 
illness does not correlate with more gun deaths.
  States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths.
  A 2016 review of 130 studies in 10 countries, published in 
Epidemiologic Reviews, found that new legal restrictions on owning and 
purchasing guns tended to be followed by a drop in gun violence--a 
strong indicator that restricting access to guns can save lives.
  The good news is that all firearm homicides, like all homicides and 
crime, have declined over the past two decades--although that may have 
changed in 2015 and 2016, with a recent rise in murders nationwide.
  There is still active debate among criminal justice experts about why 
this crime drop is occurring--but one theory that researchers have 
widely debunked is the idea that more guns have deterred crime--in 
fact, the opposite may be true, based on research compiled by the 
Harvard School of Public Health's Injury Control Center.
   Although America's political debate about guns tends to focus on 
grisly mass shootings and murders, a majority of gun-related deaths in 
the U.S. are suicides.
  Research that shows greater access to guns dramatically increases the 
risk of suicide.
  The states with the most guns report the most suicides.
   Perhaps the reason access to guns so strongly contributes to 
suicides is that guns are much deadlier than alternatives like cutting 
and poison.
  Reducing access to guns can be so important to preventing suicides: 
stalling an attempt or making it less likely to result in death makes a 
huge difference--it opens the opportunity for someone to help or for 
the suicidal person to reach out to someone to help.
  That is why limiting access to lethal means is so powerful.
  Since police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on 
August 9, 2014, police have killed at least 2,902 people as of May 
2017.
  Given that states with more guns tend to have more homicides, it is 
not too surprising that, as a study in the American Journal of Public 
Health found, states with more guns also have more cops die in the line 
of duty.
  Researchers looked at federal data for firearm ownership and 
homicides of police officers across the U.S. over 15 years.
   They found that states with more gun ownership had more cops killed 
in homicides: Every 10 percent increase in firearm ownership correlated 
with 10 additional officers killed in homicides over the 15-year study 
period.
  The findings could help explain why U.S. police officers appear to 
kill more people than cops in other developed countries.
  For police officers, the higher rates of guns and gun violence in 
America means they not only will encounter more guns and violence, but 
they can expect to encounter more guns and deadly violence, making them 
more likely to anticipate and perceive a threat and use deadly force as 
a result.
  Over the past 20 years, Americans have clearly shifted from 
supporting gun control measures to greater support of ``protecting the 
right of Americans to own guns.''
  This shift has happened even as major mass shootings, such as the 
attacks on Columbine High School and Sandy Hook Elementary School, have 
received more press attention.
  Although mass shootings are often viewed as some of the worst acts of 
gun violence, they seem to have little effect on public opinion about 
gun rights.
  That helps explain why Americans' support for the right to own guns 
appears to be rising

[[Page E1305]]

over the past 20 years even as more of these mass shootings make it to 
the news.
  Although Americans say they want to protect the right to bear arms, 
they are very much supportive of many gun policy proposals--including 
some fairly contentious ideas, such as more background checks on 
private and gun show sales and banning semi-automatic and assault-style 
weapons.
  This type of contradiction is not exclusive to gun policy issues.
  For example, although most Americans in the past said they do not 
support Obamacare, but most of them also said they like the specific 
policies in the health-care law.
  On average, 7 children and adolescents lose their lives to gun 
violence each day, 75 percent of which are under the age of 12 years 
old.
  So many people die annually from gun violence in the United States 
that the death toll between 1968 and 2011 eclipses the total lives lost 
in all the armed conflicts in the history of the United States.
  On June 7, 2015, a gunman shot and killed nine people at the Emanuel 
African Methodist Episcopal Church Charleston, South Carolina, one of 
the oldest and largest black congregations in the South.
  On November 11, 2009, at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas, a gunman 
shot and killed 13 people, and wounded 30 others.
  On August 5, 2012 in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a gunman shot and killed 
six people, and injured three others, at the Sikh Temple of Oak Creek.
  On July 7, 2015 in Chattanooga, Tennessee a gunman shot and killed 
five people, including two U.S. Marines and a Naval Officer, and shot 
and injured two others at a recruiting center and U.S. Naval Reserve 
Center.
  On December 2, 2015 in San Bernardino, California, two gunmen killed 
14 people and injured 21 others at the Inland Regional Center.
  On December 14, 2012, a gunman murdered 26 persons, including 20 
children and 6 school administrators and teachers, at Sandy Hook 
Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
  On August 8, 2015, a gunman brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend and 
her six children and husband in one of the most notorious cases of 
domestic violence in the history of Houston, Texas.
  On April 16, 2007, a gunman killed 32 persons and injured 17 others 
at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, 
Virginia.
  Mass shootings occur more frequently in states that do not require 
background checks for all gun sales.
  Analyses of mass shootings in the United States between 2009 and 2015 
document that the majority of mass shootings occur in venues where the 
carrying of firearm is not restricted.
  In states that require background checks for all handgun sales, 
including guns offered in unlicensed sales online and at gun shows, 
there are 52 percent fewer mass shootings.
  Congress must take action to prevent other incidents such as the 
recent act of terror and hatred in Las Vegas, Nevada that resulted in 
the tragic loss of 58 innocent lives.
  We extend our deepest sympathies to all those affected by this 
tragedy and recognize the skill and heroism of the law enforcement 
officers and first responders who came to the aid of others.
  We commend the efforts of those who are working to care for the 
injured and investigate this horrific incident.
  We extend our heartfelt condolences and prayers to the families of 
the fallen, and to all those affected in the community of Las Vegas and 
in the United States.
  And I pledge to continue to work to reduce gun violence and prevent 
mass shooting.

                          ____________________