[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 151 (Thursday, September 19, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H7778-H7779]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    STOP GUN VIOLENCE IN OUR NATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Rush) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by saying I certainly and clearly 
disassociate myself from the remarks of the previous speaker. I 
absolutely, wholeheartedly disagree with him and do not concur with 
him.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1999, my son Huey became a victim of gun violence 
when he was murdered in an aborted robbery attempt as he was bringing 
groceries into his apartment on the South Side of Chicago.
  Tragically, Mr. Speaker, my son's death was not unique because 
literally

[[Page H7779]]

hundreds of men, women, boys, and girls are dying every day in our 
Nation due to gun violence.
  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 
40,000 Americans have died as a result of gun-related injuries in the 
year 2017, which is the most recent year for which complete data is 
available.

                              {time}  1015

  Almost 40,000 Americans have died as a result of gun-related injuries 
in the year 2017. In the city I love, the city I live in, the city of 
Chicago, over 279 citizens of our Nation have been murdered within the 
last year due to gunfire.
  Mr. Speaker, these statistics should be a clarion call to action by 
this Congress, by this Nation, by this administration. That is why, Mr. 
Speaker, the committee that I am proud to serve on, the Committee on 
Energy and Commerce, and the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health 
will finally meet in my district on October 3 to convene a hearing to 
examine gun violence as a national public health issue. This is a 
hearing that I have been consistently calling for ever since 2017.
  This hearing will convene community members, national experts, 
victims, academia, and law enforcement. All these individuals will 
gather in my district in the city of Chicago for one purpose and one 
purpose only: to discuss how we can better protect our Nation, our 
people, our boys and girls, our schoolchildren, our church-going 
citizens, our mosque-going citizens, our citizens who worship in 
synagogs all across this Nation, our movie theater-going citizens, our 
citizens who are in malls across this Nation enjoying themselves and 
shopping.
  We need to have protection for all of our citizens driving along the 
highways. All of our citizens need to be protected, and this hearing 
will have the purpose of discussing how we can better protect our 
citizens and our communities from this epidemic, this widespread 
epidemic of gunfire, gun violence. As with any epidemic that this 
Nation faces, we will have experts come and speak to us.
  Mr. Speaker, we must stop the violence. Save the children. Save the 
families.

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