[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 13, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1510-H1511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  GUNS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I want to share the words of Geneva 
Cunningham. She is 15 years old. She is a ninth grader from the Hopkins 
Grammar School in New Haven, Connecticut.
  Geneva witnessed the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre when she 
was only in the fourth grade. Geneva's father gave me her poem in the 
wake of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, though Geneva wrote it 
just a few days before the shooting occurred. This is what she wrote:

     Pure;

[[Page H1511]]

     A mother called her child
     Kissing his forehead
     On his way to school.
     For the boy
     It was a normal day
     Until the darkness came
     And swept the light away.
     We did not ask for this.
     We did not ask to hear gunshots
     In slamming doors and dropping books.
     We did not ask
     To witness the murders
     Of the children
     We played with at recess.
     We did not know
     That our teacher
     Had taught us our final lesson.
     And we believed her
     When she said
     The red spilling from her foot
     Was only paint.
     Sweet ignorance
     The honey in our poisoned tea
     The salt we mistook for sugar.
     But where do we draw the line?
     Between knowledge and ignorance
     When do we know to cover our eyes
     When the darkness
     Begins to swallow us whole.
     We united this country
     By stating
     ``We are one.''
     And on that principle
     Our Forefathers said
     You may ``bear arms'' to fight against them.
     You may defend
     Against them.

                              {time}  1215

     But who is this ``them''?
     If we are one
     Who are we fighting against?
     If we are one
     Then who are we defending?
     If we are taking lives to begin with
     Because killing is still killing.
     The number of lives lost
     Is no victory
     On our own soil
     Or on any soil.
     We say we are equals.
     So who gets the power
     To decide
     Who lives and who dies?
     Because by giving open access to these weapons
     We are giving power
     To trembling hands.
     And these hands
     Were the ones to take the life of the little boy
     The day he was learning
     How to read.
     These machines were not designed for play.
     They were designed to kill.
     If we use them on the battlefield
     If they can take a life
     Then they are not worth it.
     Because I promise you
     A life is worth more
     Than any machine
     Used for fun.
     Yet we bear these weapons.
     We claim that we enjoy
     The crack
     At the end of the rifle.
     Yeah, it may seem fun
     On the other side.
     But what if
     You are on the opposite end?
     Begging
     Pleading
     Crying out
     For your life.
     For the lives of your friends
     For the lives of your classmates
     For the life of your teacher.
     We must be sure
     Whose fingers we can trust
     On the trigger
     Because that choice
     May determine
     Your life
     The lives of your friends
     The lives of your family
     And the lives of those you love.

  Mr. Speaker, this is the voice of a child who has witnessed murder. 
How have we allowed this to become normal in America?
  Geneva's poem is beautiful, and she never should have had to write 
it. But this is the world that we live in: a world where NRA dollars 
drive decisions, sales for bulletproof backpacks are soaring, and 14-
year-olds have seen their teachers and their friends die at school.
  We must ban assault weapons. They have no place in our society. And 
we must ban high-capacity magazines. We need to hold gun manufacturers 
accountable for crimes committed with their guns and end the de facto 
ban on gun research. These are commonsense reforms.
  As Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez said so pointedly: 
``We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks, not because 
we are going to be another statistic about mass shooting in America, 
but because . . . we are going to be the last mass shooting.''
  I pray that she is right. But it is Congress that needs to provide 
more than thoughts and prayers for a change. We must take action. That 
is our moral responsibility.

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