[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 108 (Thursday, June 27, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNIZING GUN VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. SYLVIA R. GARCIA

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 25, 2024

  Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the 
destruction gun violence has had on our country and our sense of 
normalcy.
  I grew up in a tight-knit farming town in South Texas. My daddy 
taught me to shoot when I was a little girl. We were poor, so we hunted 
to feed our communities and make a living.
  Today, guns have taken a different meaning for far too many.
  Today, Texas has more gun owners than any other state in the country. 
And that likely makes us one of the least safe states.
  Gun violence is an epidemic in this country.
  Our children constantly live in fear. They are now more likely to die 
from guns than anything else.
  We have seen too many schools shot up, and still nothing has been 
done.
  Despite what Republicans want you to believe, guns are not the 
solution. Arming teachers is not the solution.
  Sevety-seven percent of my constituents support an assault weapons 
ban, 92 percent support red-flag laws, 94 percent believe domestic 
abusers should be disarmed, and 95 percent support universal background 
checks.
  We must put people over politics and work together to protect our 
citizens, but this can't happen with Republicans' unwillingness to take 
more far-reaching action.
  We need them to work with us to expand on the bipartisan work of the 
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
  Mr. Speaker, Republicans continue to block common sense solutions.
  They refuse to work with us to pass universal background checks.
  They refuse to ban bump stocks.
  They refuse to finally ban assault weapons or protect against 
dangerous ghost guns that only make our communities less safe.
  And it's not just Republicans in the House.
  The extreme MAGA Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Trump-era 
ban of bump stocks, reopening the door for deadlier and deadlier mass 
shootings.
  We are swimming in guns.
  It's only a matter of time.
  That is why I am doing my part in Congress.
  I have cosponsored legislation on universal background checks and an 
assault weapons ban.
  I am also the proud cosponsor of the Closing the Bump Stock Loophole 
Act, which would put a law on the books to treat bump stocks as machine 
guns following the Supreme Court's disastrous ruling.
  We need to keep our residents safe, and we must act now. We will 
continue to fight for safety until we get it done.

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