[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9914-9915]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TAKE ACTION AND VOTE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Larson) for 5 minutes.

[[Page 9915]]


  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House of 
Representatives stood in solidarity and silence as we once again rose 
to acknowledge another death, another shooting, another loss of life 
again at one of our schools. We rose out of respect for the victims and 
their families, as we have done repeatedly.
  On average, there has been a shooting in a school a week. The 
American people are outraged. They no longer want Congress' silence. 
They want to hear Congress' voice.
  In America, the most important thing that we can do is vote; the most 
patriotic thing that we can do is vote. But in this Chamber, we have 
yet to take up simple legislation on background checks.
  Now, let me be very specific about that.
  Pat Toomey, Joe Manchin, two of the most conservative Senators in the 
United States Congress, put together a very narrowly constructed 
compromise that called for universal background checks to keep guns out 
of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.
  This is not complicated. It is supported by 92 percent of the 
American people and 76 percent of the NRA. John Boehner, Eric Cantor, 
Kevin McCarthy, Cathy McMorris Rodgers are honorable people. They know 
what the right thing to do is. And the right thing here, whatever side 
you come down on this issue, is to give the people in the people's 
House a vote.
  How many more times are we going to hear the pleas from parents who 
are crying out for Congress to take action? In a body where many people 
pride themselves on the right to life, why will we not rise to do 
everything to protect our schoolchildren?
  When I was growing up, we used to have drills because we were fearful 
of nuclear annihilation by Russia. Today our schools go through routine 
lockdown drills for fear of our own citizens.
  Congress has got to act or Congress, as I have said before on this 
floor, is duplicitous in every single tragedy that takes place, 
duplicitous because of its inaction. It is the morally right thing to 
do to cast a vote.
  However you feel on this issue, and there are strong feelings about 
it, but the American people, and clearly the families of these victims, 
need to know that minimally their democracy was willing not to stand in 
silence and in remorse, as important as that was and is, but to take 
action and vote.

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