[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3642]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING THE McDONNELL FAMILY

  (Ms. FRANKEL of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. FRANKEL of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the last memory that Lynn 
McDonnell has of her 7-year-old daughter, Grace, is of a beaming, 
beautiful girl blowing kisses to her from a bus as she went on her way 
to Sandy Hook Elementary School. Soon thereafter, tragedy struck. Grace 
and 19 of her classmates and six teachers were gunned down by a madman 
with a semiautomatic rifle.
  Our country came together. We mourned together. And now, Mr. Speaker, 
I'm asking this Congress, come together and do something so no other 
family knows the sadness of the McDonnells.
  Too many lives have been lost and too many communities have been torn 
apart by violence. Too many families have mourned the loss of their 
brothers and sisters. Too many people have endured unimaginable pain 
and grief caused by gun violence. When Lynn McDonnell and her husband, 
Chris, came to Washington for the State of the Union last month, she 
said Congress must choose ``action over inaction.'' And I agree.
  It's been exactly 3 months now since the Newtown massacre. For the 
McDonnells and the families in Newtown, Aurora, and my hometown of West 
Palm Beach, I say let's come together and pass responsible gun safety 
legislation.

                          ____________________