[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 111 (Friday, June 27, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H3024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CAPITAL GAZETTE SHOOTING

  (Ms. ELFRETH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ELFRETH. Mr. Speaker, 7 years ago, on June 28, 2018, a gunman who 
should never have been able to purchase a firearm, walked into the 
Capital Gazette and killed five members of our hometown newspaper: 
Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith, and Wendi 
Winters.
  Amid the shock and horror, just hours after the shooting, the Capital 
issued a simple statement: We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow, 
and that they did.
  These journalists made clear that the fourth estate cannot be 
silenced, and they made Maryland damn proud.
  On this tragic anniversary, I will make it clear on this House floor 
that as elected officials, we were not sent here to look away, to give 
up, or to offer our thoughts and prayers alone. That is why I rise 
today to remember the journalists we lost, to continue the fight for 
full freedom of the press, and for commonsense gun safety legislation 
that protects all of our communities.

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