[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 207 (Wednesday, December 1, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H6717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Georgia (Mrs. McBath) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say enough is enough. 
Enough is enough.
  Enough gun violence in our schools, enough children hiding in fear, 
and enough parents trembling in terror as they search for any news of 
their own kids.
  There were 100 calls made to 9-1-1 in Oxford yesterday. Hundreds of 
children were stuck in their classrooms crying out for help. Hundreds 
of kids were scared to death that this would be their last day of 
school.
  We have our young people learning how best to survive a shooter in 
between math and science class. Six year olds were asked to figure out 
for themselves whether they have a better chance to survive if they 
hide in a closet or if they should rush the gunman.
  And then, on days like yesterday, days that repeat with the same 
frequency as this body's failure to respond, we hear the stories of 
teenagers texting their parents from behind a desk saying things like: 
Mom, if I don't make it, I love you, and I appreciate everything that 
you have done for me. Parents were begging their children to 
``barricade yourselves behind doors, hide in classrooms, and, please, 
hold your tears, you cannot make a sound.''
  This Chamber has heard much about God since men first stood within 
these hallowed Halls. This Chamber has heard much about the God-given 
rights our Creator inalienably endowed.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I ask you then: What rights has God given our 
children?
  Do they enjoy the God-given right to exist in their schools without 
fear of death or gun violence?
  Do American parents have the God-given right to drop their children 
off at school and expect to see them come home at night?
  Parents from Columbine to Sandy Hook to Parkland have had to bury 
their babies. And the children who survived have had to live with the 
trauma that only stepping over a friend painted in blood could ever 
bring.
  Do we, as a nation, have the God-given right to live free from this 
epidemic of gun violence, of senseless loss, and of unimaginable pain?
  Mr. Speaker, I ask all of you here today to put yourselves in the 
shoes of those parents. Put yourselves in the shoes of the mothers and 
the fathers who have gasped for air when desperation would not let them 
breathe. Put yourself in the shoes of all those who have sunk to their 
knees when the agony would not let them stand.
  Mr. Speaker, do you have the courage to do that, to feel what it 
might be like to bury your own child, to suffer with your God day after 
day to make sense of the senseless, unnecessary gun violence?
  Mr. Speaker, do you have the courage?
  Does this body have the courage to do what is right and to save our 
children and to protect our families?
  And if not, Mr. Speaker, do you really, truly, have the courage to 
look away?

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