[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10172]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       INACTION IS NOT AN OPTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Kelly) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, with over 30 Americans killed by 
a gun every single day, for far too long I have been saying that 
inaction is not an option. Yet, in my 3-plus years in Congress, House 
Republicans have refused to do anything on gun violence. This week's 
lackluster, Beltway, big-gun-lobby-written bill is the only gun vote 
this Congress has had.
  Why is it that when our country was facing a horrific opioid 
epidemic, we empowered our local, State, and Federal governments with 
the resources necessary to combat this issue? And why is it that when a 
terrorist boarded a plane with a bomb in his shoe, we passed 
legislation that makes passengers remove their shoes when they go 
through airport security? Yet, after countless mass shootings and daily 
violence in the streets of Chicago, Newark, and Baltimore, we do 
nothing.
  Many of us here today are still rightfully discussing the horrible 49 
deaths in Orlando a few weeks ago, but I would like to share two other 
statistics with you about gun violence since Orlando.
  During our honorable colleague, Senator Chris Murphy's 15-hour 
filibuster, 48 people in America were shot. Forty-eight people in 15 
hours. In Chicago, the last month has seen 79 people lose their lives 
to gun violence. Seventy-nine lost souls:
  Fabian Lavinder; Kevin Montell Atkins, Jr.; Victor Felix; Marshawn 
Clinkscale; Kaysar Chako; Joseph Harden; Jamaal Bellamy; Christian 
Bandemer; Daniel Alcantara; Anthony Howard; Darnell Hardeman; William 
Palmer; Kori O. Sellers; Dontay Murray, Jr.; Donkel Riley; Anreco 
Nichols; Sami Salaymeh; Victor Sanders; Lewis Johnson; Lanarris 
Webster; Dawson Stephan; Paul Webster; Terry Bates, Jr.; Jeremy Ray; 
Fatimah Muhammed; Travell Montgomery; Timothy Boyd; Christopher Fields; 
Javil Nunn; Antwon Brooks; Dwayne Triplett; Jordan Liggins; Davion 
Barron; Adrian Watson; Antoine Randle; Steven Edwards; William 
Sandifer; Antonio Perkins; Jeremy Rodgers; Denzel Thornton; Angelo 
Davis; Demetrius Archer; Marshaun Jackson; Victor Robinson; Melvin 
Cook; Charles Wiley; Latrell McMahon; Eric Knox; Eric Smith; Margaret 
Shanahan; Alejandro Rosas; Michael A. Brown; Carlton Hall; Salvador 
Suarez; Otis Richmond; Eugene Singleton; Ramal Hicks; Amari Catchings; 
Stanley Boston; Jessica Hampton; Eric Burgin; Trevell Parker; Jeremy 
Clark; Brandon Nolls; Reginald Turner; Trayvon Wilson; Wondale Collier; 
Selton Ellis; Frederick Johnson; Lonnie King; Kentrail McCray; Alfondia 
Kelly; Matusalem Gutierrez; Darrell Guy, Jr.; Marshawn Hilson; Chanda 
Foreman; Robert Vaughn; Kenneth Whitaker; Hector Badillo, Jr.; and 
Willie Pittman.
  We were led during our sit-in 2 weeks ago by an icon, Congressman 
John Lewis, and I was very, very, very proud to participate and would 
do it again. He is fond of referencing a dream he shared with his 
mentor, a mentor of many of us, Dr. King, the dream of the Beloved 
Community, a place where people of all races, creeds, religions, and 
gender identification can live together in peace.
  Certainly there is no place for assault rifles in the Beloved 
Community. There is no place for gun rights for terrorists in the 
Beloved Community. There is no place for gun rights for criminals and 
the dangerously mentally ill in the Beloved Community. In the Beloved 
Community, no child has to live a life where going to the park risks 
them from being mowed down by a stray bullet.
  I will keep fighting and speaking out until we honor these victims' 
lives with action, not with moments of silence.

                          ____________________