Gun Violence is A Public Health Crisis

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, there is a public health emergency in our country. Are you thinking of Zika? Are you thinking of opioids? Yes, they are public health emergencies, but there is another ongoing, long- term public health emergency, and that is gun violence.

I thank the chair of our task force, Mr. Thompson; Mr. Larson for organizing it; the great icon, John Lewis, for galvanizing all of the concern in the Congress around this issue; David Cicilline and, of course, our distinguished Member we just heard from, Congresswoman Clark from Massachusetts, for their leadership.

Robin Kelly of Illinois has been a champion, and so has Judy Chu. So many Members have taken the lead on this issue, as Elizabeth Esty did before she was even sworn in in Congress, addressing the concerns at Newtown.

Ninety-one people lose their life to gun violence every day. That is not a statistic, that is an outrage. It is a challenge to the conscience of our Nation to end Congress' appalling inaction on gun violence prevention.

Across America, communities are standing up, speaking out, and lighting the way. A preventable public health crisis is taking the lives of our children, our neighbors, and our friends. You would think that when the lives of little children in school were taken that that would be the end of it, that would end the discussion, and that any common ground that we could find to expand the background checks, which is not a big thing really, in terms of just including Internet sales and gun shows--just expanding what we have, not a big legislative move but would make a tremendous difference in saving lives in our country.

This Congress must hear the voices of those calling for action to keep guns out of the wrong hands. And I want to just talk about some of the voices that I recently heard when I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago. I went to Orlando and visited Pulse, the nightclub where the gun violence there took place. It was gun violence, and it was a hate crime, which is a deadly combination.

When I met with the families and some of the survivors there to hear their concerns about hate crimes and gun violence, they said to me, really to a person, please do something to stop gun violence. As consumed as they were with the fact that this was a hate crime, the gun violence issue was what each one of them spoke about, that they had lost their loved ones.

These are young people out on a Saturday night. One mom who went there to take her son to see his friends and the rest and make sure he was safe, the mom died, and the son survived. Any mom would prefer that outcome, but why does that have to be the choice?

So here they are: if you are in kindergarten, if you are in the movie theater, or if you are in church praying, as was referenced by our colleagues about South Carolina--that was a hate crime, too. The awful statements made by the perpetrator of that crime where he exploited the hospitality that was extended to him to pray together, and then for him to make his hateful remarks, racist remarks, and then do violence on the people who had welcomed him to pray with them.

So where is it that people are safe? What can we do to make a difference?

Well, for one thing, if you are too dangerous to fly, you should be too dangerous to buy a gun. Eighty to 90 percent of the American people subscribe to that. That shouldn't be controversial in the Congress.

We are supposed to be Representatives representing the will of the people. And where there is consensus--we have enough disagreement, but where there is consensus, a public health emergency, and loss of life, even to little children, people in church, young people out on the town, people going to the movies, what is it that our colleagues don't understand?

What is it that our colleagues don't understand? In addition to keeping guns out of the hands of those who are too dangerous to fly, our Nation depends on keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them, again, just simply expanding to gun shows and Internet sales. Yet House Republicans won't even give the American people a vote.

Give us a vote and see how it goes. What are you afraid of? Are you afraid? Are you afraid that the American people will be done and that we will have a successful vote on no fly, no buy, strengthening our background check system?

So we are going to be leaving soon. Before we left for the summer, under the leadership of our distinguished leader, whom we all consider a privilege to call colleague, John Lewis, there was a sit-in on the floor of this House that reverberated across the country. Then we left. Congress shut down and we left.

We are about to do so again, but we have a little time. We have a little time to save lives. What more important thing does any of us have to do than to stay here and pass a law to save lives? If somebody said to you: You could save 90 lives by passing a bill today, wouldn't you do that? Or, why wouldn't you do that? Why wouldn't you do that?

It is really quite a sad thing when people go to the movies--as my colleague, Mr. Israel, keeps pointing out. When they go to the movies, usually they are concerned about are they going to be able to get their popcorn and their whatever in time to get a seat in the theater. Now they want to know where the nearest exit is when they go to the theater. What is that about?

Some people say it is about politics and it is just too politically dangerous for some of our colleagues to vote for the simple expansion of the background check legislation and passing no fly, no buy. It is politically dangerous to them. Whose political survival is more important than the lives of these children, of those people in church, and of those young people out on a Saturday night, people going to the movies? Whose political survival is more important than protecting the American people? That is the oath we take, to protect and defend, whether it is the Constitution, whether it is protecting our country's national security, our neighborhood security, or our personal security.

So let's honor our oath of office. Let us honor our sense of responsibility. Let us respond to those moms and family members and survivors from polls that said: Why? Why are you not passing legislation in the House of Representatives to prevent gun violence, to save lives--to save lives?

So, in any case, I think it is really important. I thank Mr. Larson for, again, bringing us together. We are not going away. This will go on and go on and go on until we disarm hate. We are here to save lives here and across the country. We are not going to stop until we enact gun violence prevention laws. We are not going to stop until we get the job done.

Again, I thank our leaders on this important issue. I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson) for his leadership for years now on this subject. Again, hopefully, it won't be too long before our colleagues see the light and decide that their political survival is not more important than the survival of little children in first grade. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

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