[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8880]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1050
                TIME FOR CONGRESS TO ACT IS LONG OVERDUE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania). The Chair 
recognizes the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise to associate myself 
with the remarks of my dear colleague from Connecticut, Elizabeth Esty, 
who has done such a remarkable job in representing that district and 
especially the families of Newtown, Connecticut, in the aftermath of 
this horrific tragedy.
  Mr. Speaker, the time for us to act is long overdue. The hard truth 
for the United States Congress is, as Congressman Mike Thompson pointed 
out, since Newtown, 5,000 Americans have lost their lives at the point 
of a gun; 5,000 Americans since Newtown.
  The United States Congress has a responsibility to act and do its 
constitutionally obligated desire to get this bill passed. Now, whether 
you believe this is the correct course of action or not, as the 
President said in his State of the Union message, you still have a 
responsibility to vote. This is a democracy. Every day that we delay a 
vote on this bipartisan bill, Congress is complicit--Congress is 
complicit--in the deaths of those American citizens who wait for action 
as Congress sits by as 5,000 more victims die at the point of a gun.
  I commend the families of Newtown, and the whole world was heartened 
when Mark Barton stepped out into the Rose Garden with the President of 
the United States and reiterated a phrase that has held them all 
together: that their hearts are broken, along with those of the entire 
world as we look down at this tragedy, but their spirit is not. And 
they are undaunted in their determination, driven by the memories of 
those teachers and administrators and students who died so tragically. 
They--both students and teachers--were willing to stand in the way of 
violence, and the United States Congress can't do its constitutional 
responsibility and stand up and vote?
  All of us in America watched as the United States Senate, with 
families in the gallery, voted on background checks that 91 percent of 
the American people agree with, voted it down. No teacher in America 
could explain the next day how the vote was 54-46, and it lost. 
Citizens all across this country take heed: do not give up. Continue to 
fight this fight. Fight what's wrong with Congress about not taking 
votes when they should and about a system in the Senate where a 
majority prevails and a vote goes down because of the cloture rule, an 
arbitrary rule in the United States Senate.
  The outrage has to start outside of this building because here in 
this building, people remain complicit in the acts that will only 
continue to take place if Congress does not take action.

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