[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E715-E716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SHARING STUDENTS' `MARCH FOR OUR LIVES' REMARKS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 23, 2018

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, on May 9, I came to the Floor and spoke about 
the March For Our Lives on March 24 and the nine extraordinarily poised 
students in Morristown, New Jersey, who spoke at the rally there, which 
I attended. I include in the Record remarks by Raniya Madhi. I hope my 
colleagues will read them and internalize the sense of fear in which 
our nation's students are living every day--and our responsibility as 
Members of Congress to do something to address this crisis of gun 
violence.

                          March for Our Lives

                           (By Raniya Madhi)

       Hi everyone, my name is Raniya Mahdi, and I'm a junior at 
     Ridge High School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and I'm 
     participating in this march to honor the lives lost at 
     Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where we 
     lost seventeen of our school companions and teachers to yet 
     another mass shooting in this country.
       Today is March 24. Millions of people are marching for 
     their lives across the country to demand change so that no 
     student, teacher, or parent has to fear for their or their 
     loved ones life while they are receiving an education at 
     school. When I heard about this shooting, I had mixed 
     emotions. I was shocked, shocked, that we had to lose 
     seventeen more innocent kids to another senseless killing, 
     and yet some of us haven't even addressed this issue that is 
     killing our kids day after day. I was upset, upset to think 
     about how their families must be feeling, that they will 
     never get to kiss their kids goodbye ever again. They will 
     never ever be able to see their loved ones, maybe in another 
     world, but not this one. This world, this country, has made 
     it impossible for us to be able to feel safe in our own 
     schools. We should never have to think about the possibility 
     of being shot by someone who can easily break through our 
     defenseless walls and enter our school like an ordinary 
     person, until they whip out their AR-15 and start firing at 
     students and staff without a care in the world. The ones who 
     we lost should not have been taken away. Why did they need to 
     suffer because of the inaction and stagnance of our 
     congressmen? I thought to myself: These innocent kids came to 
     school, on Valentine's Day, like any normal school day, yet 
     they did not live to see their families and friends the next 
     day. This is horrifying to me, that countless school 
     shootings like this have happened over the years, but no 
     change.
       Picture this: A nineteen-year-old walks into a liquor store 
     and lawfully be denied any sort of alcohol. Now picture how 
     is it that a nineteen-year-old cannot legally buy a beer but 
     can legally buy an AR-15 assault rifle at this age? And how 
     can our country allow a person to take the lives of fourteen 
     fellow students and three teachers? We have to unite as one 
     and urge our congressmen to take action. This is why we are 
     participating in this peaceful protest, to pressure our 
     congressmen, senators, representatives and the President to 
     make changes to the existing laws. Ban bump stocks! Ban 
     assault rifles! Increase background checks! We deserve to 
     feel safe in our schools! We may just be students, but this 
     kind of revolution has never happened before, where us kids 
     are taking the reins. Look around you. Look at how many 
     empowered students there are standing up here and around you. 
     This is what determination and unity looks like. With these 
     two things, we can be the generation that ends gun violence.
       Most of us here are just teenagers. We should be worrying 
     about doing well on our AP tests and finals in the end of the 
     year, not about being shot by someone who can enter our 
     schools. There have been eighteen school shootings this year 
     alone, and we are only in March. This country's problem is 
     that we do not learn from our mistakes. In Australia, there 
     was a mass shooting in 1996, when a gunman killed thirty-five 
     people in Port Arthur. Only weeks after the tragedy, 
     Australia banned all rapid-fire guns and offered to buy the 
     remaining weapons that some individuals possessed. Since that 
     day, there has not been a single mass shooting. Not one in 
     the past twenty-two years.

[[Page E716]]

     Whereas America? After Columbine, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, 
     Orlando, Vegas and endless others, this country remains numb 
     to any shootings of any kind, no matter how extreme the death 
     tolls are, this country has made it seem like those who died 
     and those who are living aren't even worth putting any sort 
     of restrictions on the weapon that brutally ended their lives 
     and a weapon that could potentially end ours if we do not do 
     something about it.
       America needs to wake up and address the major problems 
     here: gun violence and school security. We cannot let more 
     innocent lives be taken away. Again, we may not be able to 
     pass legislation, but we have a voice and we are strong and 
     will continue to use it until something is done. Let's unite 
     as one and support the brave survivors in Parkland that are 
     speaking out for their rights and let's stand together and 
     fight through this hell of an uphill battle. This is not the 
     end of our fight, it's only the beginning.

                          ____________________