[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 16, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H1368-H1369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
              COMMONSENSE SOLUTIONS TO GUN VIOLENCE CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Underwood) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. UNDERWOOD. Madam Speaker, I rise to call on our colleagues in the 
Senate to swiftly pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act; 
and H.R. 1446, the Enhanced Background Checks Act.
  These bills are bipartisan, commonsense solutions to our Nation's gun 
violence crisis. Together, they accomplish what the vast majority of 
Americans want, to keep guns out of the wrong hands. I was proud to 
cosponsor both bills and vote for them when they passed the House last 
week. Now it is time for the Senate to take action.

[[Page H1369]]

  In 2020, the Gun Violence Archive reported more than 40,000 deaths 
caused by gun violence, including over 1,300 children. Yet, despite the 
fact that gun violence continues to rise--and 90 percent of Americans, 
including 80 percent of gun owners support universal background 
checks--Republicans in Congress have spent years blocking bipartisan 
legislation to close our biggest loopholes and keep our communities 
safe.
  Gun violence is preventable, yet it is such a tragically routine 
occurrence in this country that every community has a story. Mine is no 
exception.
  I recently joined the Aurora Historical Society in Illinois to pay 
tribute to the five people murdered and the seven heroic first 
responders who were injured 2 years ago during a shooting at the Henry 
Pratt Company.
  The mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin, said after the shooting that ``we 
as a society cannot allow these horrific acts to become commonplace.''
  Yet, absurdly, we have already reached the point in which this 
unspeakable tragedy in Illinois is not even America's most lethal mass 
shooting in a town named Aurora. So I call on my colleagues in the 
Senate to take action with us so that our children can someday live in 
a country in which gun violence is no longer commonplace.
  Madam Speaker, as a nurse, I am thrilled that, in 2019, we finally 
directed Federal funding toward public health research on gun violence, 
for the first time in two decades. This type of research is critical 
for evidence-based policymaking, and I will keep fighting to make sure 
that that funding continues. But studying the problem is just the first 
step in our work to solve it. It is already past time to make simple 
changes that we already know work.
  Madam Speaker, background checks are a simple, effective way to keep 
guns out of the wrong hands. A 1995 Connecticut law requiring 
background checks for firearm purchases was associated with a 40 
percent decline in gun homicides and a 15 percent drop in gun suicides. 
Meanwhile, when Missouri repealed a similar law in 2007, gun homicides 
jumped by 23 percent, while firearm suicides rose by 16 percent. 
Homicides and suicides by other means stayed flat in both States; only 
gun violence changed.
  I wish all our public health crises had such a clear, straightforward 
solution.
  Madam Speaker, H.R. 8 would require a lifesaving background check for 
every gun sale, while H.R. 1446 would give the FBI more time to 
complete those checks before a single sale goes through. These bills 
would not add any new restrictions on who can buy a gun or what kind of 
gun that they can have. Rather, it would make it easier to enforce our 
existing gun laws and stop guns from being sold to people who are 
already prohibited from owning one.
  Madam Speaker, I am not willing to wait for the next murderer to 
attack the next church in the next Charleston. I am not willing to wait 
for the next angry employee to murder his coworkers at the next Henry 
Pratt in the next Aurora, Illinois. I am not willing to wait for the 
next Aurora, Colorado, or the next Pulse Nightclub, or the next 
Parkland, or the next Tree of Life, or the next Sandy Hook. I am also 
not willing to wait for more women to be murdered by their abusers, or 
for more children to be lost to gun violence.
  I am done waiting. My constituents are done waiting. Enough is 
enough.
  Americans deserve to feel safe in their schools, in their houses of 
worship, in their movie theaters, in their workplaces, and in their 
homes. We can no longer live in a country where any building can so 
easily become a battlefield.
  Madam Speaker, my colleagues and I in the House voted last week for a 
safer future for our children. Now I call on my colleagues in the 
Senate to save lives and send H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446 to the President's 
desk.

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