Sharing Students' `March for Our Lives' Remarks
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, on May 9, I came to the Floor and spoke about the March For Our Lives on March 24 and the nine extraordinarily poised students in Morristown, New Jersey, who spoke at the rally there, which I attended. Because they were too long to insert into the Record together, I am submitting them individually. I hope my colleagues will read them and internalize the sense of fear in which our nation's students are living every day--and our responsibility as Members of Congress to do something to address this crisis of gun violence. `March for Our Lives' Remarks (By Bella Bhimani)
Hi, everyone. Before I begin, I would first like to thank everyone for coming today to support such an important cause. The overwhelming support we've received has made all the difference. And to everyone who donated, whether it be your time, money or even knitting hats, I cannot thank you enough. I would also like to thank both the mayor and the Morristown Police Department for all the help they have provided and doing everything possible to make this march happen. We also have four sponsors, Blue Wave NJ, Moms Demand Action, NJ-ll for Change, and League of Women Voters. These organizations are all truly amazing and have done so much for us. Lastly I would just like to say how grateful I am for the incredible group of students that we have. These students have worked so hard and without them none of this would have been possible.
One of the questions I've been asked a lot is ``what makes this shooting so different?'' I can't speak for everyone else, but I know at least for me, when the last major school shooting happened, (Sandy Hook) I had only just turned eleven. It's not that I didn't care, because I was obviously upset, but I knew that as a fifth grader I didn't have the power to do anything. Because we live in a world where we are taught growing up that ``the adults will handle it''. We expect that the president and all of our legislators will do their job and when there is a problem they will actually do something about it. However as we have grown up we've realized that that is not the case. If we want change to happen we have to make it happen ourselves. One of my favorite Gandhi quotes is `Be the change you wish to see in the world.' And that is why I am up here today. We are the ones affected and we are the only ones willing to fix this.
But before I go any further I want to address the preconceived notion that we are trying to take away all guns. This is not the case. All we want is to make the world safer, which is something I think everyone can agree. We believe this can be accomplished through stricter gun regulations. We are asking for stricter background checks, raising the age limit of purchase and, while not everyone may agree, I am certainly in favor of a ban on assault rifles, which are truly weapons of war.
Going off of that another question that I am frequently asked is, what am I actually trying to accomplish with this march. With that comes the constant criticism that this march isn't going to suddenly make change happen. And to some extent they're not wrong. This is not something that will happen overnight and is a fight that is going to take time. Every fight has to start somewhere and this is only the beginning. So to answer the question what I want is to keep this conversation going. To get Congress to begin discussing passing stricter gun laws and to show the world that we won't stop.
That being said, I would like everyone to take a second to turn to the people around you and introduce yourselves. Get to know each other, because we are ultimately all one community, and we are here for the same reason: to put an end to gun violence. And this change is only going to happen if we are united.
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