[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9912-9913]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN CONTROL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the 74th school shooting 
incident since the horrific day at Sandy Hook in December 2012 where 26 
people, including 20 children, were slaughtered. Only this time, it was 
my district.
  Reynolds High School, the second-largest in the State of Oregon, was 
the scene of the tragic murder of 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman, a junior 
high school varsity soccer player and volunteer soccer coach. He was 
gunned down; a teacher was wounded, and the shooter, apparently an ex-
student, dead.
  I was struck by, just a few days earlier, when The Onion, the 
satirical newspaper, had their response to this recent spate of 
shootings that has shaken us all.
  The Onion headline read:

       ``No Way To Prevent This,'' Says Only Nation Where This 
     Regularly Happens.

  The article read:

       In the days following a violent rampage in southern 
     California in which a lone attacker killed seven individuals, 
     including himself, and seriously injured over a dozen others, 
     citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass 
     killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded that there was 
     no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. ``This was 
     a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen 
     and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them,'' said North 
     Carolina resident Samuel Wipper, echoing sentiments expressed 
     by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation 
     where over half the world's deadliest mass shootings have 
     occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times 
     more likely to die of gun violence than those of other 
     developed countries. ``It is a shame, but what can we do? 
     There really isn't anything that was going to keep this guy 
     from snapping and killing a lot of people if that is what he 
     really wanted.'' At press time, residents of the only 
     economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two 
     mass shootings have occurred every month for the past 5 years 
     were referring themselves and their situation as 
     ``hopeless.''

  Well, the fact is we can do something about gun violence. It is a 
public health crisis, and with any other disease or health product that 
produced such widespread death and destruction, we would mobilize. 
First, we need to take some simple, commonsense steps like universal 
background gun checks. We have them in my State of Oregon. Obviously, 
it doesn't keep every senseless act of gun violence from happening, but 
it is often proven effective to keep weapons out of the hands of the 
mentally unstable and criminal elements.
  Universal background checks are supported by an overwhelming number 
of Americans--over 90 percent by some estimates--and a strong majority, 
over two-thirds, of gun owners want to make sure there are no loopholes 
in the background check laws.
  Recent events have also demonstrated what you will find out by 
visiting any jail, emergency room, or simply walking the streets of our 
communities: too many Americans are facing a mental health crisis. I am 
looking forward to working with Representative Tim Murphy on his H.R. 
3717, Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.

                              {time}  1015

  We have been discussing ways to advance some of the provisions in 
this Congress. Recently, my friend and colleague from Tucson, 
Congressman Ron Barber, himself a victim of gun violence which occurred 
during the tragic murders in Tucson--which included the serious 
wounding of our former colleague, Gabby Giffords--has also introduced 
legislation.
  I am looking forward to being able to work with both Congressman 
Murphy and Congressman Barber, so that this Congress produces 
legislation to strengthen the opportunities to help people who are 
mentally ill.
  We ought not to pretend that there is nothing we can do about these 
situations. Look at what happened with automobile safety. It has 
dramatically improved within a generation, once we stopped accepting 
the carnage on our roadways.
  Auto deaths have been cut in half, serious injuries reduced, not with 
any single magic solution, but by patient, hard work involving step-by-
step efforts to improve design and construction of automobiles, the 
education of drivers, and the enforcement of our laws.
  Education, engineering, and enforcement can likewise make a big 
difference in reducing the epidemic of gun violence in America, and we 
certainly

[[Page 9913]]

can do a better job of helping individuals and families in mental 
health crisis.
  Let's not make a parody in The Onion be the reality of this Congress. 
Let's act. Tens of thousands of victims, past and future, including 
young Emilio Hoffman, demand our best efforts.

                          ____________________