[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10316-10317]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, last week, nine parishioners were shot and 
killed inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, 
South Carolina, one of the oldest African American churches in the 
United States.
  In the days following the horrific tragedy in Charleston, we paused 
to reflect and send our prayers to families grieving an unimaginable 
loss. I wish this tragedy in Charleston were an isolated incident, but 
it seems to be part of a terrible recurring pattern.
  After national tragedies, society should engage in a discussion about 
how to address and potentially prevent such tragedies from happening 
again. Let's remember that after Katrina, we talked about FEMA and 
national readiness. But the gun lobby doesn't want us to have this 
conversation. They accuse anyone who tries with exploiting the deaths 
of innocent people.
  With that logic, we couldn't talk about solutions when 13 people were 
killed and 8 were injured during the shooting in the Washington, D.C., 
Navy Yard; or after a person opened fire during a midnight screening of 
a film, ``The Dark Knight Rises'' in 2012, killing 12 and injuring 58 
others; or when 28 people were shot and killed, including 20 innocent 
children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School; or when a man shot 3 people 
and killed 7 others at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin; or when 
14 people were shot and 6 were killed in 2011 during a constituent 
meeting hosted by our colleague, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, in a 
supermarket parking lot in Tucson; or when a man opened fire in Fort 
Hood, Texas, in 2009, killing 13 people, injuring 30 others; or in 2008 
when a man opened fired at a lecture hall at Northern Illinois 
University, shooting 21 students and killing 6; or when a senior at 
Virginia Tech went on a shooting rampage on campus in 2007, killing 33 
people and injuring 23 others; or when 2 seniors at Columbine High 
School attacked their classmates and teachers, wounding 24 and killing 
15; or in Chicago and cities across the country which experience gun 
tragedies every day.
  Yet, since I have come to this Congress nearly 7 years ago, the 
people's House has refused to hold even one hearing on the epidemic of 
gun violence we are facing.
  Last Sunday alone, in Chicago, 14 people were shot and 1 man was 
killed, all within a matter of hours. In May, Chicago saw 300 people 
shot and 37 people killed in shootings. Every day in America, 297 
people are shot and nearly 90 people are killed by guns.
  According to Harvard University researchers, the rate of mass 
shootings has increased threefold since 2011, occurring an average of 
every 64 days. Let me repeat that. A mass shooting occurs in the U.S. 
on the average of every 64 days.

                              {time}  1015

  When will enough be enough? When will we stand up and say we may not 
be able to stop every crime, but we can stop some of them and at least 
minimize the damage of others? When will we realize and acknowledge 
that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced 
countries? When will we finally be able to have a national discussion 
about gun violence?
  Instead, the gun lobby stymies debate by arguing that no gun 
regulation can prevent criminals and the mentally ill from killing 
people with guns, but I don't buy that. Sure, no single law or set of 
laws can prevent every act of senseless violence. Ending the American 
epidemic of gun violence will require more than a change in law.

[[Page 10317]]

  It is clear we need a change in our culture; but oftentimes, changing 
our culture starts with changing our laws. By enacting reasonable 
reforms, we can make a difference. We can make it more difficult for 
would-be assassins to access guns. We can ensure every gun in America 
is purchased after a background check rather than only 60 percent of 
guns, as is currently the case.
  We can crack down on the flow of illegal guns onto our streets by 
improving gun trafficking data, and we can reduce the fatality rate by 
banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines that are designed 
exclusively for killing dozens of people at once.
  Let's face it, when you have an assault rifle with a high-capacity 
magazine, you are not hunting deer; you are hunting people. The gun 
lobby tries to argue that any attempt to regulate gun access is an 
attempt to restrict all gun access, but there is such a thing as 
commonsense, middle-ground gun reform, and most gun owners support it.
  Can we stop every shooting? No. But can we reduce their frequency and 
deadliness? Absolutely--the first step toward keeping dangerous guns 
out of the hands of dangerous people is to begin the conversation. 
Let's break the silence, stop the violence, and start the conversation.

                          ____________________