[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 18, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H1765]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             GUN REFORM NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Adams) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise because too often in our 
schools the sounds of students talking and lockers clanking in hallways 
are giving way to silence and violence.
  Today, I rise because desks that should be covered in gum are too 
often covered in blood, the blood of students and their teachers.
  Today, I rise because three 9-year-old children and three adults are 
dead in Tennessee, as well as the person who killed them.
  Tennessee State representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and 
Gloria Johnson wanted to bring attention to this tragedy. They wanted 
to honor the victims of the mass shooting at The Covenant School with 
action instead of insulting their memories with silence. From the floor 
of the Tennessee House, they led the public gallery in chants of ``no 
more silence,'' ``we have to do better,'' and ``gun reform now.''
  Tennessee Republicans were so afraid of this message that they 
expelled Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, the two Black 
representatives, for their actions.
  These two courageous young men knew, as we do, that we cannot wait to 
be saved from the gun epidemic. They knew there would be more dead.
  Unfortunately, since the mass shooting in Nashville on March 27, over 
900 additional people were killed by gun violence in our country, 22 in 
Tennessee alone.
  It really makes me sick. It makes me livid that we continue to accept 
the status quo and that we are comfortable living in a country where at 
any time our friends, our families, our neighbors, even our children 
and our grandchildren, can die a horrible death because they were in 
the wrong place at the wrong time when the wrong person had a gun.
  We will be judged if we don't act, not only by history, not only by 
our God, but by our children who will inherit our country with this 
metastasized gun cancer still attached.
  I am a Christian. As someone who knows and reads and lives Scripture, 
I can tell you beyond a doubt that the AR-15, the assault rifle, is the 
golden calf of Washington, D.C. Too many people in the people's House 
worship this idol and treat it with reverence. However, just like in 
Scripture, if we continue to worship this idol, the result will be 
physical and spiritual death.
  I stand with representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones in 
saying: No more silence. We have to do better. Gun reform now. No more 
silence. We have to do better. Gun reform now.

                          ____________________