The Do-Nothing Republican Congress is Missing in Action

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, exactly 1 month ago, 14 innocent students and 3 innocent teachers were massacred at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

We are in the midst of a gun violence epidemic in this country; mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting; massacre in the workplace in San Bernardino, California; massacre at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida; massacre at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada; massacre in churches down in Charleston, South Carolina and in Texas; massacre in schools, in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida.

We are in the midst of a gun violence epidemic in this country, yet the do-nothing Republican Congress is missing in action.

The overwhelming majority of the American people support universal background checks. The overwhelming majority of the American people support limiting access to weapons of war. The overwhelming majority of the American people support raising the age of purchase from 18 to 21. Yet the do-nothing Republican Congress is missing in action.

Our students should be able to go to school and focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic; but, instead, they are often in school with their hands in the air, participating in active shooting drills. Yet the do-nothing Republican Congress is missing in action.

All throughout the country today, tens of thousands of students in blue States and red States; students in urban America, rural America, and suburban America; students in the North, the South, the East, and the West, are walking out of class for 17 minutes to demand that Congress pass commonsense gun violence prevention legislation.

I salute your courage. I salute your conviction. I salute your determination to make a difference.

The students of this great country have stepped up. Now it is time for Congress to do the same. It is time for Congress to choose. We can either stand with the students, or you can stand with the NRA. History will judge us all.

The students of this country are being cut down in the classroom in cold blood, yet the do-nothing Republican Congress is missing in action.

We don't work for the NRA. We don't work for the gun manufacturers. We don't work for the merchants of death. We work for the American people, and it is time for us to finally address the gun violence epidemic in America.

Enough is enough. The American people deserve a better deal.

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