[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5060]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ADDRESSING GUN VIOLENCE

  (Mrs. BEATTY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, elementary schools, high schools, movie 
theaters, universities, and shopping malls have all been scenes of 
horrific incidents where innocent lives were lost, along with our sense 
of security. After each tragedy, we hear sermons, speeches, console 
survivors and loved ones, but we in Congress have done little to change 
the way we address gun violence. I want to change that.
  While massacres such as the one that occurred in Newtown draw 
significant attention to the issue of gun violence, it is a persistent 
problem throughout the Nation. According to a recent Johns Hopkins 
University survey, a solid majority of Americans, gun owners and nongun 
owners alike, support several initiatives to slow gun violence. For 
example, 89 percent of all respondents, and 75 percent of those 
identified as NRA members, support universal background checks for gun 
sales.
  President Obama's plan also calls for a ban on military-style assault 
weapons and high-capacity magazines, like the kind that have been 
commonly used in so many of the mass shootings we have witnessed in the 
United States.
  We can never prevent all crimes or gun violence, but we can work 
together to find ways to limit the loss of lives with commonsense 
solutions.

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