Epidemic of Gun Violence

Floor Speech

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Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today heartbroken and angered once again by the rampant epidemic of gun violence plaguing our Nation. Gun violence is on the rise across the country. I am not just talking about the tragic mass shootings that grip our collective attention. I am talking about the everyday shootings that go undetected by the national media.

Last year, gun deaths became the number one killer of youths aged 16- 24. We are on track to break this record in 2016.

Just this past Father's Day weekend, 41 people were shot--13 of them fatally--in Chicago. The shootings in those 60 hours claimed the city's 300th recorded homicide this year. This is the list of the names of the people who have lost their lives to gun violence. I don't have enough time to name every name.

Amari Brown, 7 years old, was the youngest. He was shot in the back.

In 2016 alone, more than 1,800 people have been shot across Chicago.

Among this weekend's victims was 3-year-old Devon Quinn. On Sunday, Devon was riding with his father to pick up his mother from work when a hail of bullets hit their car. Devon is still hospitalized.

Devon's story is, unfortunately, all too common in communities like some of the ones that I represent, where a trip down the street to a convenience store or a gas station could end in tragedy.

I am tired of hearing stories like this. It saddens me and angers me each time I speak with constituents and hear their all too familiar story of losing a loved one to gun violence. I am frustrated not only because we are losing an entire generation to gun violence, but because so many of these deaths were preventable if Congress had just had the courage to take action.

Sadly, we don't even talk about gun deaths until it is forced into our lives with another tragic mass shooting. When this happens, we give our fiery speeches, hold our moments of silence, and then we wait for the national buzz to fade. It is a shameful and disrespectful ritual that proves that Congress has little to no plans to truly honor the lives of gun violence victims.

This weekend on ``Meet the Press,'' the Speaker gave his fellow Republicans a pass to ``vote their conscience'' with respect to their Presidential support. I ask the Speaker to give his colleagues a pass when it comes to voting on backgrounds checks, which 90 percent of Americans support.

With each shooting, we are quick to say that it is a mental health problem, it is a family problem, it is a terror problem. But somehow it is never a gun problem.

It is time we look at the common denominator and accept that the root of the problem is about how guns get into the hands of those seeking to do harm.

Prayer and reflection brings comfort to those who mourn, but scripture of all faiths teaches that prayer must be met by good deeds. Silence without action is deafening.

The majority of the American people want greater action. They want to close the gun show and online loopholes that allow people to purchase guns without a background check. They want medical experts and their government to research this plague of gun violence for what it is: a public health crisis. They want to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists on the no-fly list.

Why is it that when someone poses a credible national security threat, we ensure that they cannot fly on a plane, but they can still purchase a firearm?

With each second that passes without action, we are risking another Devon Quinn, another Hadiya Pendleton, another Blair Holt. We are risking another Orlando, another Sandy Hook, another Virginia Tech.

So I ask my colleagues: Just who exactly has to die and how many before we finally put an end to this? Just how many birthdays, Father's Days, Mother's Days must go uncelebrated? How many would-be graduations must pass? How many empty chairs at a kitchen table must there be before we show courage and say ``enough'' and take action to pass measures that keep us safe instead of going on with our violence?

It is deafening. Bring these bills to the floor.

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