[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 120 (Thursday, July 13, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H3482-H3483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  UNENDING EPIDEMIC OF MASS SHOOTINGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, last week, we celebrated our Nation's 
birthday, a day that conjures up images of flags and fireworks, family 
barbecues and patriotic parades.
  But in my district, the dominant image on July 4 was a mint green 
child's bicycle. That little green bike lay untouched in the street in 
the Kingsessing neighborhood for days after it was abandoned by its 
innocent owner when a man wearing combat gear and a mask stalked his 
neighbors, shooting randomly, killing five and injuring four others. 
One of the victims was 13. Another was on his dinner break from work. 
Two-year old twins

[[Page H3483]]

and their mother were injured when their family car came under fire.
  My district was not the only one that was the scene of such horrors 
during the holiday week. There were mass shootings in Baltimore, Fort 
Worth, and Wichita.
  From sea to shining sea, on a day when we should have been 
celebrating the greatness of our Nation and the blessings of liberty, 
we saw senseless, needless death and destruction.

                              {time}  1015

  With the memory of the Highland Park shooting last July Fourth 
reinforced by more recent shootings, people across the country decided 
to skip parades and public celebrations because they were afraid of 
being shot.
  Today is the 175th day of 2023, and so far this year, there have been 
over 370 mass shootings.
  The bloodshed is daily. American families are scared and traumatized.
  Americans are tired of living in fear at the grocery store, church, 
school, community celebrations, and parades. It does not have to be 
like this.
  There are commonsense laws that can stem the bloodshed of gun 
violence, and House Democrats are committed to passing them.
  On June 13, House Democrats introduced three discharge petitions that 
would ban assault weapons like the one used by the Kingsessing shooter 
last week; require universal background checks, which have been proven 
to prevent shooters from obtaining weapons; and close the Charleston 
loophole.
  Those bills should get a vote, and Members of this House should be 
willing to put on the record where they stand.
  We have other bills that would ban ghost guns, which the shooter also 
carried, and implement red flag laws, which have been proven to save 
lives by preventing suicides and allowing law enforcement to remove 
weapons from troubled individuals--again, like the Kingsessing 
shooter--before they kill someone.
  These are bills that we know have the power to save lives, and they 
are popular, too.
  Republicans in Congress just need the courage, the guts, to act. 
Anyone without the guts to act allows this unending epidemic of mass 
shootings to continue.
  Americans do not and should not have to live like this. We don't need 
more neighborhoods with devastated families, abandoned children's 
bicycles, and people afraid to leave their homes.
  Mr. Speaker, I will continue fighting to protect your families and 
mine, and I urge every Member of this body to join me.

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