[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17944]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 CONGRESS MUST ACT TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE

  (Mr. DEUTCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, this House will be leaving today. Members 
will be going back to their districts. We leave after some dramatic 
changes have taken place in the House.
  We elected a new Speaker within the past couple of weeks. There is a 
new, open process we have heard about. We saw much more debate this 
week. These are changes that affect this institution; but there is one 
thing that has not changed: Members of this House will be going home 
this weekend without this House or our committees having had any 
opportunity to debate ways to stop the spread of gun violence.
  We are going to return home to environments where gun violence 
continues to plague every corner of this country; yet we cannot even 
have the debate here. Not only can't we have the debate, but, since 
1996, there has been a prohibition on even having a study about the 
effects of gun violence in our communities.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to stop putting our heads in the sand. 
Congress must act. We must take our responsibilities seriously to 
address head-on the scourge of gun violence. We can do something about 
it, and it is time that we do.

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