[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 177 (Tuesday, November 6, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1499-E1500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROBIN L. KELLY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 6, 2018

  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because this weekend 
11 Americans were shot and killed while at a bris at the Tree of Life 
Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA.
  This synagogue is a staple of the Squirrel Hill community and a place 
used by Jewish Americans and their neighbors to celebrate life moments, 
community achievements and their faith in God.
  Sadly, one man, with a hate-filled heart and an AR-15, turned this 
peaceful, loving community into victims of one of America's worst and 
most shocking mass shootings.
  These are the names of the Americans that this Republican-controlled 
House failed with our failure to pass commonsense, broadly-supported 
bans of military-style assault weapons, like the AR-15: Jerry 
Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Rose Mallinger, Bernice 
Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Joyce Fienberg, Dr. Richard 
Gottfried, DMD, Irving Younger, and Melvin Wax.
  In addition to the 11 fatalities within the synagogue, four 
Pittsburgh police officers were shot and wounded, two remain in 
critical condition.
  Sadly, this hate crime was not the only hate-related shooting in 
America in recent days.
  Another man, with a hate-filled heart and a gun, shot and killed two 
Americans at a grocery store in Jeffersontown, KY.
  In Jeffersontown, we lost fellow Americans: Maurice E. Stallard and 
Vickie Lee Jones, to senseless gun violence. Mr. Stallard was at the 
store with his 12-year old grandson to buy poster board for a school 
project. Tragically, he witnessed the entire event.
  Mr. Speaker, by this Congress' negligence and inaction, we have 
created a situation where grandparents and grandkids aren't even safe 
going to the store for school supplies. Where will the madness end?
  Before entering the Kroger and beginning his rampage, the shooter had 
attempted to enter a predominately African American church--we sadly 
could have seen another Mother Emanuel had he been successful in 
entering that church.
  So, once again, Mr. Speaker, I ask you: ``where does it end?''
  Our houses of worship are no longer safe. In fact, in the last three 
years, our nation has experienced not one, not two but three mass 
shootings in houses of worship around the country.
  Nine were killed at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South 
Carolina.
  Twenty-six were killed at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, 
Texas.
  Now, eleven were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania.
  Where will it end, Mr. Speaker? How many more praying people need to 
be gunned down before you will have the courage to act and save lives?
  Even the Speaker's own Congressional District--Wisconsin's first--
experienced as mass shooting at a Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak 
Creek, which killed six.
  Yet, still he did not act to save lives, even though his own 
constituents were gunned down for the loving and worshipping their God.
  At what point did Congress become so beholden to the NRA that we 
can't find the political courage to save the lives of Americans 
exercising their First Amendment right to worship as they please?
  It's past time for the madness to stop.
  It's past time for Congress to act.
  It's past time to stop arming hate while only offering half-hearted 
``thoughts and prayers'' while places of faith become places of death 
by gun violence.
  Mr. Speaker, will you act? Will you call Congress back into session 
and pass just one gun violence prevention bill?

[[Page E1500]]

  Or is campaigning for the mid-term election and those NRA checks too 
important to you and the Republican Party?

                          ____________________