[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 17 (Thursday, January 26, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H345]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Casten) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CASTEN. Madam Speaker, this has been a bloody week in America. It 
seems like every day we have woken up to news of another mass shooting, 
starting with the one 5 days ago when a gunman, armed with an assault 
pistol and high-capacity magazine, killed 11 Californians as they 
celebrated Lunar New Year.
  Three weeks from now, Valentine's Day will be the 15th anniversary of 
a mass shooting on the Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb. 
The shooter started firing at 3:06 p.m. By 3:11 p.m.--just 5 minutes 
later--he had taken his own life. But not before firing off 55 rounds 
of ammunition, killing 6 people and injuring another 21.
  In Parkland, Florida, on Valentine's Day they don't memorialize 
Northern Illinois University, they memorialize the anniversary of the 
shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That shooting lasted 
for 6 minutes, 139 rounds were fired, 17 people were killed, and 17 
were injured.
  Six months from now, on Independence Day, folks in Highland Park, 
Illinois, will be memorializing the first anniversary of a mass 
shooting when 83 rounds were fired, 7 people were killed, and 48 were 
injured before the police--who were present at the scene--could even 
identify the location of the shooter.

  We do not get our holidays back unless we act.
  Too often, this body has responded to these shootings with thoughts 
and prayers. Prayers that the American people won't notice that some of 
my colleagues are putting the economic interests of gun manufacturers 
ahead of people's lives. But every once in a while, we do act. I want 
to talk about what we are capable of when we are touched by the better 
angels of our nature.
  To do that, let's flash back to another Valentine's Day not that long 
ago. Two Chicago gangs were fighting over narcotics turf. One of them 
surprised the other, and in a flash of bullets, seven people were dead. 
Chicagoans and Illinoisans--Americans--were outraged. Yes, these were 
gang members, but they didn't deserve to die.
  The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was in 1929. It was when Al 
Capone's Italian gang killed seven members of Bugs Moran's Irish gang 
as whiskey bootleggers fought over drug turf. And we acted. That 
shooting led to the passage of the National Firearms Act that banned 
civilian access to fully automatic Tommy guns and any rifle with a 
barrel longer than 18 inches.
  That law is still on the books today. It saves lives, and no one has 
ever claimed it was unconstitutional.
  By the way, Madam Speaker, if you weren't expecting that a story 
about Chicago gangs was going to be about White people, I would like to 
thank you for attending today's class in critical race theory. As that 
poet Ice Cube says: You better check yourself.
  But I digress.
  Seven people died in 1929, and we acted. Eleven people died on Lunar 
New Year 5 days ago. There have been 40 mass shootings in the first 26 
days of this year, over 1,300 gun homicides in the United States this 
year, and another 1,700 gun suicides. I am proud that my State of 
Illinois has just passed an assault weapons ban. It is time for this 
body to do the same.
  I know I speak for all Americans when I say that I want to enjoy my 
next holiday without fear of getting shot, and that inaction in the 
wake of way too many avoidable deaths is completely unacceptable.

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