[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8264]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  NATIONAL GUN VIOLENCE AWARENESS DAY

  (Mrs. DAVIS of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. DAVIS of California. Today we recognize the first National Gun 
Violence Awareness Day, and when you look around, you will see a lot of 
people wearing orange.
  This day was declared in memory of Hadiya Pendleton, a teen-age girl 
who was shot and killed in a park 2 years ago. She would have turned 18 
today. Hadiya's story is sadly familiar. For Americans under the age of 
20, gun violence is now the second leading cause of death.
  Mr. Speaker, in recent years, we have lost more children to guns here 
at home than we did soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It shouldn't be 
political to say that these shootings need to stop. I hope we can all 
agree that America's young people deserve better.
  We owe it to Hadiya and those like her to come together on this issue 
and work to prevent future tragedies. We know that simple solutions 
like mandatory background checks, which a majority of Americans 
support, can make all the difference.
  Mr. Speaker, the situation is dire, and action is long overdue. I 
urge my colleagues to act now on sensible gun control.

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