[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 14, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H592-H593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       RECOGNIZING THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PARKLAND SHOOTING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Moskowitz) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MOSKOWITZ. Madam Speaker, today is Valentine's Day, but I don't 
celebrate Valentine's Day anymore. I haven't celebrated Valentine's Day 
in 6 years. Today is a difficult day for myself, many in the city of 
Parkland, and my constituents. You see, it is the sixth anniversary of 
the mass shooting at my high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas in my 
hometown of Parkland.
  I remember February 14, 2018, like it was yesterday. I was in 
Tallahassee when my wife called and said something terrible has 
happened at the high school around the corner from our home. I was 
informed that there had been a mass shooting.
  I immediately traveled home to Parkland. I went to the school that I 
graduated from and saw what it looks like when your high school is 
turned into a war zone.
  I then went to the hotel where they were keeping the families of the 
kids who were missing. I knew they weren't missing.
  For 8 hours, they waited in that hotel while the Broward Sheriff's 
Office and the FBI told them what happened to their kid. They pulled 
families out one by one into a separate area of the ballroom separated 
by a partition. The process went on from 12:30 in the morning until 3 
in the morning. I didn't hear crying. I heard screaming. It haunts me 
every day.
  Madam Speaker, 17 innocent people didn't make it out of that building 
on that fateful day. I knew we had to do something, and so I brought my 
colleagues from the Florida legislature to see the building firsthand 
and see how it affected families in my community.
  What we saw was unfathomable to imagine--the sight of the deadliest 
high school shooting in American history.
  Families now have empty rooms in their homes. They have empty chairs 
at the dinner table. My own son, who was 4 years old at the time, went 
to preschool right around the corner separated by a traffic light from 
Marjory Stoneman Douglas. The teacher that was with my 4-year-old in a 
closet that day, her daughter was killed. While she was protecting my 
son, her daughter, Jaime, was killed at Douglas.
  Like previous Valentine's Days, parents and wives will spend their 
time visiting their children or their husbands at the cemetery.
  I remember parents telling me one thing, and they said it over and 
over, and it has stuck with me ever since. They said that the only 
thing I did wrong was send my kid to school. That is not on them. That 
is an indictment on us. It is an indictment on the elected officials 
who have failed to do nothing to keep our kids safe in school.
  I mean, look at them. These were babies murdered in their classroom. 
They were teachers. I went to high school with Aaron Feis. He was on my 
football team when we were in high school. He became a football coach. 
He ran in to try to help, and he was gunned down.
  At least in Florida we did something after the shooting at my high 
school. The Florida legislature passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas 
School Safety Act. It raised the age to buy a firearm to 21. It 
instituted red flag laws and 3-day waiting periods. By the way, those 
red flag laws which take weapons out of the hands of people who are 
mentally ill have been used 12,000 times in 6 years. Madam Speaker, 
12,000 times law enforcement in the State of Florida has deemed someone 
either a danger to themselves or a danger to others.
  We put hundreds of millions of dollars into mental health, school 
resource officers, school safety, and this was passed on a bipartisan 
basis. In fact, it was led by my Republican colleagues, A-plus rated 
members of the NRA, and signed into law by Governor Scott who became a 
U.S. Senator. They got it right that day. They got it right. We did 
that while still upholding people's constitutional freedoms and rights.
  Madam Speaker, as we sadly reflect today on the sixth anniversary of 
the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, I am going 
to use the rest of my time to sit in silence after I read the names of 
the victims: Alyssa Alhadeff, Martin Duque Anguiano, Scott Beigel, 
Nicholas Dworet, Aaron Feis, Jaime Guttenberg, Chris Hixon, Luke Hoyer, 
Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty, Meadow 
Pollack, Helena Ramsay, Alex Schachter, Carmen Schentrup, and Peter 
Wang.

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