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Our Nation is in the Grip of A Gun Violence Epidemic

Floor Speech

Date: March 5, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Guns

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, our Nation is in the grip of a gun violence epidemic; yet, even in the face of national tragedy, Congress has failed again and again to act.

On January 10, 2018, a student in Denison, Texas, fired a weapon that belonged to an adviser, thinking it wasn't loaded. That same day, a middle school student in Maplewood, Minnesota, fatally injured himself with a gun in a school bathroom.

On January 23, 2018, a 15-year-old student in Benton, Kentucky, opened fire with a handgun, killing two people and injuring 18.

On February 14, Valentine's Day, 2018, a 19-year-old gunman killed 14 students and 3 faculty members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, using a semiautomatic weapon.

Two months into 2018, its tragedies are too numerous to list.

For too long we have allowed NRA's gun industry lobbyists to pick and choose our guns laws.

I say: No more.

Students across America are demanding Congress enact commonsense gun violence prevention, including universal background checks, limits on high-capacity magazines, and a ban on the sale of assault weapons designed not for a hunting field, but for a battlefield.

We must not fail them again.

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