[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 18, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1766-H1767]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1030
LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Green) for 5 minutes.
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.
And still I rise as a proud, unbought, unbossed, unafraid, liberated
Democrat.
I rise today, Mr. Speaker, in the name of liberty and justice for
all. Liberty and justice for all, not the name of liberty and justice
for people of color, for people who happen to be of a different hue,
but in the name of liberty and justice for all and, more specifically,
in the name of liberty and justice for Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in the name of liberty and justice for them
because our country should be in mourning today. A life was needlessly
lost, and no one of great notoriety, or a person who happens to have
been a Congressperson, or a person holding some prominent position in
society. They were not persons who were out in Hollywood making motion
pictures; just an ordinary citizen who lost their life, and we ought to
be in mourning.
We ought to be in mourning because the young man was shot for ringing
a doorbell. His sin was he was ringing a doorbell. He was a person of
color, yes. Apparently, according to at least one statement by an
official, there is something to do here with race. But he was ringing a
doorbell, and he was shot twice--once in the head.
The young woman that I speak of was White. She went into the wrong
driveway, and she was shot.
Is this where we are in this country? People are going to be killed
for ringing the wrong doorbell? Going to be murdered for pulling up in
a driveway? Innocently, I might add.
Is this where we are?
We ought to be in mourning today. These lives matter. We ought not
allow this to happen without some sort of special occasion, something
that speaks to them, some sort of way of commemorating this.
We have gotten to the point now where it is just a life lost.
Tomorrow there will be more. The day after that, even more.
What is wrong with us?
Can not we see where we are headed? We stand on the eve of
destruction and don't know it. We are going to destroy ourselves.
Mr. Speaker, we have the power to do something about this. We cannot
allow constitutional carry, meaning just get a gun and not have to take
any sort of test. You don't have to prove that you are a person who can
manage this level of lethality. You can buy a gun because you have the
money to buy it. Then only God knows what you will do with it.
I am not contending that I know the history of these two persons.
That is not it. But I am saying to you that if we don't get a handle on
what we are doing with this level of lethality by placing these weapons
in the hands of people willy-nilly, we are going to see more of this.
It can be your child next.
Do not assume that it cannot happen to you. It can be your daughter.
These were the children of somebody, and they deserve life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.
I am totally, completely, and absolutely antithetical to this notion
of constitutional carry, where you can just buy a gun because you have
the money to buy it. We ought to have red flag laws in this country. We
ought to be able to decide whether or not we are going to allow people
to have lethality that can, at a moment's notice, take tens of lives.
Gun manufacturers ought to be held accountable for placing this level
of
[[Page H1767]]
lethality within the communities. At some point, gun manufacturers are
going to lose this immunity they have to being held accountable. The
Congress never should have given it to them.
This is a sad day in the history of this country. Two people--it
doesn't matter about their color--two people were shot because they
happened to be in the wrong place in the presence of persons with
lethality.
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