[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 84 (Tuesday, May 22, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H4288-H4289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NO MORE MOMENTS OF SILENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, Glenda Perkins;
  Cynthia Tisdale;
  Kimberly Vaughan;
  Shana Fisher;
  Angelique Ramirez;
  Christian Riley Garcia;
  Jared Black;
  Sabika Sheikh;
  Christopher Jake Stone; and
  Aaron Kyle McLeod.
  Mr. Speaker, those are the 10 names of the people killed at Santa Fe 
High School in Texas last Friday. Two were teachers; eight were 
students. All were violently torn away from their loved ones and their 
pathways to bright futures way too soon.
  As usual, the elected officials have expressed that their thoughts 
and prayers are with the victims and their families, but we all know by 
now that more is needed than a moment of silence, because the silence 
of lawmakers, especially those here in the House of Representatives, 
kills:
  58 killed in Las Vegas, Nevada;
  27 killed in Newtown, Connecticut;
  14 killed in San Bernardino, California;
  17 killed in Parkland, Florida;
  4 at a Waffle House in Tennessee;
  26 at a church in Texas;
  49 at a nightclub in Florida;
  6 at a Cracker Barrel in Michigan; and
  9 at Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina.
  The gunmen--and they were almost all men or boys--had different 
motives or motivations, including crime, racism, terrorism, revenge, 
and seeking notoriety, which they got.
  And they all had access to weapons and bullets that could kill scores 
of humans in just moments. For the most part, of the only thing the 
victims had in common was that they were killed by bullets.
  The Washington Post reported that the number of people killed in 
schools in 2018, this year, is almost double the number of servicemen 
and -women killed in our military in both combat and noncombat 
fatalities.
  And this coming weekend, just like clockwork, as America honors 
fallen servicemembers on Memorial Day, Chicago--my city--will see a 
deadly toll. Fifty-two people were shot over the Memorial Day weekend 
last year, and that was actually down from the previous year, 2016, 
when 71 people were shot in my city.
  There will probably be no national special reports or wall-to-wall 
news coverage, because when 50 or 75 people of color are shot in an 
American city over a weekend, it barely makes the news; unless the NRA 
or FOX News use my beloved Chicago and her tough gun laws as a way of 
giving political coverage to politicians, while failing to point out 
that the loopholes and weak gun laws in Indiana, Virginia, and other 
States feed illegal guns into my city.
  And we should note that the NRA is now run by someone whose claim to 
fame--Oliver North--is that he lied to Congress, perjured himself, and 
sold guns to our country's enemies. And they claim to be on the side of 
law and order?
  So, the result is political paralysis, societal paralysis, and 
actual, permanent paralysis as the butcher's bill of dead and wounded 
grows and grows.
  When I came here in 1993, we had hope and optimism that we could cut 
crime and reduce the number of guns on our streets. But despite the 
drop in crime, all of our efforts to reduce the number of guns on our 
streets, in our houses, in our schools, and in our churches have been 
thwarted by the gun manufacturers.
  The assault weapons ban, I voted for and worked for, was here until 
it was killed by politics.
  The crime gun bill I wrote would work by reducing the availability 
and manufacture of the cheap, concealable handguns most often used in 
gun crimes, but it will never get a vote in this House of 
Representatives.
  See, we have established a school-to-coroner pipeline in this country 
that will persist until the American people arm their politicians to do 
something about it. But I fear the profit motive of the gun 
manufacturers and the politicians they own, got in their pocket, is 
greater than the will of the American people to take on and tame our 
runaway love affair with bullets.

                              {time}  1015

  Mr. Speaker, it takes good people without guns working with good 
people who own guns to keep guns out of the hands of people who will 
use them to kill other people.
  It is not that we do not know what works, because we do. Waiting 
periods, background checks, trigger and gun locks, restrictions on the 
sales of guns can all be effective in reducing suicide, murder, and 
accidental death by firearms.
  We are not lacking the way. We are only lacking the will to overcome 
the deeply entrenched, highly profitable industry that thrives on fear, 
mistrust, inequality, racism, misogyny, and tribalism.

[[Page H4289]]

  We cannot afford another moment of silence, because silence kills. 
What we need is a moment of action to save the American people from 
killing themselves with American guns and American bullets.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record this list of moments of silence 
observed in the House since the Newtown shooting. It is compiled by the 
Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. There are 43 of them, moments of 
silence, and nothing done to save the American people from the gun 
lobby and the NRA.

 Moments of Silence Observed on the House Floor Related to Gun Violence

                    December 14, 2012--May 21, 2018

       Date, Topic of Moment of Silence.
       12/17/12, Moment of Silence in Memory of Victims of 
     Connecticut Shooting.
       2/27/13, Chardon 1-Year Anniversary.
       3/6/13, Honoring the Lives of Sergeant Loran ``Butch'' 
     Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler.
       7/19/13, Aurora Remembrance.
       7/24/13, Moment of Silence in Memory of Officer Jacob J. 
     Chestnut and Detective John M. Gibson.
       9/17/13, Moment of Silence in Tribute to the 12 Navy Yard 
     Shooting Victims.
       1/8/14, Moment of Silence on Anniversary of Shooting 
     Victims in Tucson, Arizona.
       4/3/14, Moment of Silence and Prayer for the Fort Hood 
     Shooting Victims, their Families, and the Community.
       5/28/14, Moment of Silence in Memory of the Victims of the 
     Santa Barbara, California, Tragedy.
       6/9/14, Moment of Silence to Honor the Victims of the June 
     8, 2014, Las Vegas Shooting.
       6/10/14, Moment of Silence for Victims of Reynolds High 
     School Shooting.
       7/22/14, Domestic Violence.
       7/24/14, Moment of Silence in Memory of Officer Jacob J. 
     Chestnut and Detective John M. Gibson.
       7/30/14, Moment of Silence for Victims of Clackamas Mall 
     Shooting.
       11/20/14, Moment of Silence for the Victims at Marysville-
     Pilchuck High School.
       1/8/15, Moment of Silence on Tucson Shootings' 4-Year 
     Anniversary.
       5/12/15, Moment of Silence In Honor of Officers Liquori 
     Tate and Benjamin Deen of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
       6/23/15, Moment of Silence For Victims of Shooting at 
     Emanuel AME Church, Charleston, South Carolina.
       7/21/15, Moment of Silence For Servicemembers Killed in 
     Chattanooga, Tennessee.
       7/27/15, Moment of Silence for Lafayette Shooting Victims.
       9/8/2015, Moment of Prayer for Allison Parker and Adam Ward 
     (Roanoke).
       9/10/15, Moment of Silence Honoring Deputy Darren Goforth, 
     Harris County Sheriffs Office.
       10/6/2015, Moment of Silence Honoring Victims of Umpqua 
     Community College Tragedy.
       12/2/2015, Moment of Silence Honoring Victims of Colorado 
     Springs Shooting.
       12/16/2015, Moment of Silence Honoring Victims of the San 
     Bernardino Terrorist Act.
       1/8/2016, Moment of Silence Remembering the Fifth 
     Anniversary of the Shooting in Arizona.
       2/23/2016, Moment of Silence For the Victims of Kalamazoo 
     Shootings.
       3/1/2016, Moment of Silence for the Victims of Kansas 
     Shootings.
       6/14/2016, Moment of Silence for the Victims of the Orlando 
     Shooting.
       7/8/2016, Moment of Silence for the Victims of the Dallas 
     Shooting.
       1/5/2017, Moment of Silence to Commemorate Sixth 
     Anniversary of Shooting in Tucson.
       1/9/2017, Moment of Silence for Law Enforcement Officer 
     Killed on Law Enforcement Officer Day (* includes same 
     shooting).
       1/9/2017, Moment of Silence in Recognition of Victims of 
     the Two Most Recent Tragedies in Ft Lauderdale and Orlando (* 
     includes same shooting).
       1/9/2017, Moment of Silence Honoring Law Enforcement 
     Officers Killed in Orlando (* includes same shooting).
       2/27/2017, Moment of Silence in Remembrance of Kansas 
     Shooting Victims.
       4/5/2017, Moment of Silence Remembering Virginia Tech 
     Victims.
       7/18/2017, Moment of Silence Honoring Officer Miosotis 
     Familia and State Trooper Joel Davis.
       7/24/2017, Moment of Silence in Memory of Officer Jacob J. 
     Chestnut and Detective John M. Gibson.
       10/2/2017, Moment of Silence in Memory of the Victims of 
     the Attack in Las Vegas.
       11/6/2017, Moment of Silence in Memory of the Victims of 
     the Attack in Sutherland Springs, TX.
       1/8/2018, Moment of Silence Commemorating Seventh 
     Anniversary of the Shooting in Tucson, Arizona.
       1/29/2018, Moment of Silence Honoring Marshall County High 
     School Shooting Victims.
       2/26/2018, Moment of Silence Honoring Those Killed at 
     Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
       3/13/2018, Moment of Silence for the Three Victims of Gun 
     Violence at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville.
       4/25/2018, Moment of Silence for Fallen Gilchrest Law 
     Enforcement Officers.
       4/26/2018, Moment of Silence for the Victims and Hero of 
     Waffle House Mass Shooting.

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