[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 24 (Thursday, February 7, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H1438-H1440]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Porter) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island 
(Mr. Cicilline), my friend and a member of the Judiciary Committee, a 
leader in responding to the American people who broadly support gun 
violence prevention.
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and 
I particularly thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on this issue 
and for organizing today's Special Order hour.
  One of the great blessings of being in the majority is wonderful new 
colleagues who are bringing their incredible intellect and passion and 
commitment to the issues facing the American people, and the 
gentlewoman from California is obviously a magnificent example of that, 
so I thank her for the courtesy.
  Mr. Speaker, the numbers speak for themselves. On average, 100 
Americans are murdered with firearms every day. Three hundred more are 
shot and wounded.
  In 2017, the number of gun deaths in this country hit 40,000, the 
highest level in 20 years, according to the Centers for Disease 
Control. Globally, we have the highest rate of gun violence of any 
developed Nation on Earth.
  We have a gun violence epidemic in this country.
  The U.S. is now the world leader in child gun deaths, with death by 
gunshot being the second highest cause of death among children.
  This is a public health crisis.
  People are being killed at schools, at houses of worship, in 
restaurants, at homes, and everywhere in between. There is no place 
safe from the threat of gun violence in this country.
  We have seen it at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and Marjory 
Stoneman Douglas High School; at houses of worship in Charleston, Oak

[[Page H1439]]

Creek, Sutherland Springs, and Pittsburgh; at a nightclub in Orlando, a 
movie theater in Aurora, and a country music concert in Las Vegas.
  But under GOP control for the last 8 years, Congress did nothing. We 
had moments of silence for 30 minutes. We stood. We said nothing and 
did nothing.
  Fortunately, Mr. Speaker, this is about to change. Yesterday, the 
House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on gun violence 
prevention in nearly a decade. The room was filled with parents who 
lost their children and young people who lost their friends to gun 
violence.
  They are determined to make sure that no one else has to live through 
such senseless tragedies. Particularly the young people, whose passion 
and commitment and dedication to making sure that we do something to 
reduce gun violence in this country, have changed the conversation in 
America. It was a great pleasure to have the opportunity to thank these 
young people, because their voices are making a difference.
  I used my 5 minutes at the hearing in part to apologize to these 
young people, because we have failed them. The adults in this country 
and the adults in this Congress have failed them.
  They are asking us to do our jobs at the very basic minimum: Keep 
them safe. Allow them to lead their lives and reach their full 
potential.
  I am very proud that I am introducing a number of bills that will 
reduce gun violence in this country--a bill to ban assault weapons, a 
bill to ban dangerous bump stocks and 3D-printed guns.
  I will also be introducing a bill to improve the background check 
system by requiring States to establish better reporting systems for 
mental health professionals to identify individuals who pose a risk to 
themselves or others if they have a gun.
  I plan to introduce a bill that will require notification to law 
enforcement if a prohibited purchaser buys or attempts to buy a gun.
  Mr. Speaker, there are dozens of commonsense proposals that will be 
introduced in this Congress. Sadly, almost all of them will be 
introduced by Democrats. I hope we can have some bipartisan support on 
this, because the American people want us to do something before 
another horrible tragedy occurs and before another deadly weapon ends 
up in the wrong hands.
  There are many good ideas on how to do it. Our Republican colleagues, 
as I know the gentlewoman from California will agree, always say there 
isn't one bill that will stop every instance of gun violence, and so, 
they argue, we shouldn't do anything, because we can't stop it all. Of 
course, that is a ridiculous argument against taking action, because 
there is no question that we can take action on a number of bills that, 
taken together, will substantially reduce gun violence in this country.
  We have the responsibility to do it. The American people are 
demanding that we do it. We will take up a bill to close the background 
check loophole that allows nearly 22 percent of guns sold in this 
country to happen without a background check.
  We are going to take up legislation to fix the background check 
system and make certain that all sales of guns undergo a background 
check, so we can make sure criminals don't have access to firearms.
  That is just the beginning. That is the first thing we will do. We 
are going to move forward on a whole series of commonsense proposals 
that will help stop the carnage being caused by gun violence in this 
country.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I will yield back to the gentlewoman and 
again thank her for her leadership and accommodation this evening. I 
thank her for organizing this very important Special Order hour to 
continue to raise this issue and demonstrate to the American 
people that we are committed to getting something done to reduce gun 
violence in this country to protect our constituents who sent us here 
to do just that.

  Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Cicilline for his words and his 
passion and his leadership on this issue.
  As he said, one of the most basic functions of our government doing 
our jobs is to keep American families safe and secure. For too long, 
Congress has put fealty to the special interest of the gun lobby ahead 
of our safety.
  Mr. Speaker, the prevalence of gun violence in our country is 
horrifying. For 15- to 24-year-olds, the gun murder rate here in 
America is 49 times higher than our peer nations. Our children and my 
children go to school with the fear that their school, that their 
classroom, could be the next mass shooting site.
  Guns are the second leading cause of death for our American children 
and teens. Nearly 1,700 children are killed by guns each year. Our 
country's gun violence epidemic is not normal. While we have about 5 
percent of the world's population, we have about 15 percent of 
noncombat-related gun violence.
  The fact is that no other country on this planet even remotely comes 
close to ours on the problem of gun violence.
  It has been almost a year since the Parkland school shooting and more 
than 6 years since the Sandy Hook shooting. And until this Congress, 
there has not been any change coming out of Washington.
  Yesterday, we took an important first step. As my colleague, Mr. 
Cicilline, recognized, the House held its first hearing in 8 years on 
taking action to prevent gun violence in America. It is a shame, Mr. 
Speaker, that it took 8 years to hold that hearing.
  Next week will be the markup of historic legislation, H.R. 8, the 
bipartisan background check bill. Now more than ever, we need to insist 
that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle stand up to the gun 
lobby and stand up to join in the fight to end gun violence.
  Six of the deadliest mass shootings in our Nation's entire history 
happened in the last decade, a decade in which Congress did nothing to 
reduce preventable gun deaths.
  We cannot continue, we should not continue, to ignore the demands of 
mothers, of grandmothers, of grandparents, of teachers, of nurses, of 
emergency room physicians who are concerned, like all of us, about 
violent gun deaths and about children being killed in their schools and 
in their communities.
  We need to be leaders, not shills for the gun lobby, not cowards 
afraid of losing an A rating. Our children deserve courage. They 
deserve the courage of this Congress. Our children deserve leaders who 
will fight to ensure that families are safe at school, at movie 
theaters, at concerts.
  I will not be bought, and I will not be silenced by the gun lobby or 
by the President.

                              {time}  1815

  The midterm elections made clear that voters want lawmakers to put 
the safety of our children and our families first. We must end the 
insidious buying off of politicians by the gun lobby.
  Americans overwhelmingly support commonsense gun safety reforms like 
H.R. 8, which implements mandatory background checks on all gun sales 
and transfers. Ninety-seven percent of Americans want laws like this 
implemented.
  Since the Brady Bill was passed 25 years ago, over 3 million attempts 
to purchase firearms have been blocked because of background checks. 
Yet, one out of five guns is still sold without a background check.
  We also need commitment and action by Congress to reinstate CDC, 
Centers for Disease Control, funding to study how best to prevent gun 
violence. More than three-quarters of Americans support the CDC 
conducting research on gun violence as a public health issue.
  Yet, for decades, Republicans in Congress have prevented us from 
studying the factors that contribute to accidental deaths, suicides, 
and homicide by firearms. And without that information, without that 
research, we cannot have a full understanding of how to exercise our 
duty to keep American families safe and to prevent unnecessary loss of 
life.
  These are not radical ideas. They are commonsense American solutions 
that are being held hostage by the gun lobby.
  My home, Orange County, has made its feelings heard time and again, 
that it wants to strengthen gun violence prevention laws. Keeping our 
families safe is at the heart of our values.
  I am particularly inspired by the advocacy of those in our community 
who have experienced loss and suffering from gun violence and, yet, 
found the strength to dedicate their lives to making sure that others 
don't experience similar tragedies.

[[Page H1440]]

  I would like to highlight the story of one such couple, Mary Leigh 
and Charlie Blek, from Orange County, California. These loving parents 
led the fight in my district and in California, for commonsense gun 
legislation.
  Mary Leigh and Charlie's son, Matthew, was only 21 years old when he 
was shot and killed. He was a victim of an armed robbery by teens using 
a small handgun, also known as a ``Saturday Night Special'' or a ``junk 
gun.''
  In memory of their son, the Bleks founded the Orange County Citizens 
for the Prevention of Gun Violence in 1995. For five long, hard-fought 
years, they advocated for safety regulations that would rid California 
of the type of gun that killed their son, and they succeeded.
  California used to produce 80 percent of the junk guns for the 
Nation. California no longer produces these junk guns, and has enacted 
safety standards for handguns that are working to reduce gun violence 
deaths.
  Still today, the Bleks are vigilant in preventing the gun lobby from 
finding new ways to sell dangerous handguns in California. They now 
lead the Orange County Chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun 
Violence, and I am personally very grateful for their efforts, their 
leadership, and their courage.
  No family should ever have to go through what the Bleks suffered, but 
too many in our own communities have. Since the beginning of 2014, in 
California, over 14,000 people, 14,000 people, including 120 law 
enforcement officers, have been injured or killed from gun violence. 
Forty-seven of those people hurt or killed were in my district, the 
45th district. We have lost 34 members of our communities in just 4 
years, all to gun violence.
  This is a public safety problem, and, Mr. Speaker, doing nothing is 
unacceptable. This issue affects all of us, young and old alike.
  Just last week, I received 60 letters, 60 letters from constituents 
living at Heritage Point, a senior community, each letter asking me to 
take action to prevent so many senseless deaths. These letters said: 
``Most of us have families, children, grandchildren, and even great 
grandchildren. We have much anguish due to the recent and terrible 
shootings taking place almost in our own backyard.''
  Gun violence destroys families and communities. We must work together 
to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people.
  We cannot allow the frequent news of gun violence to desensitize us 
into believing it is the norm. It is not the norm, and it is not 
unavoidable. There is something we can do to prevent gun violence.
  If Congress puts people first, people ahead of the gun lobby, we can 
save hundreds of lives each year. Our role, as elected Representatives, 
is to prioritize and fight for the well-being of our constituents and 
our communities, not the score we are assigned by the gun lobby.
  Standing up to powerful special interests is a radical transformation 
of how Congress operates, but that change is long overdue.
  We need commitment and action by Congress to pass commonsense gun 
laws like H.R. 8, to expand background checks. We need to fund CDC 
research on firearms and the impacts of gun violence.
  Without Congress' action, if we simply offer thoughts and prayers, 
but do nothing, our children, our families, our communities, will 
increasingly suffer from preventable injuries, preventable suicides, 
and preventable homicides, preventable shooting massacres, and the fear 
and trauma associated with gun violence.
  Gun violence is an epidemic, and we can no longer afford to point 
fingers or to place blame. We must act. On both sides of the aisle, we 
must have the courage to fight gun violence for the common good of the 
American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________