Gun Violence

Floor Speech

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Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Clarke, for leading this critical Special Order to speak about the national epidemic of gun violence, an important topic to all of us.

Sadly, though, Mr. Speaker, it seems that most Members only need to dust off their talking points from the last mass shooting, which was in Florida at Parkland. As the Grammy-winning artist, Kelly Clarkson, noted over the weekend, the same script plays out: vigils are held and the dead children are in our thoughts and prayers and life goes on, with most of the rest of us hoping and praying that our loved ones will not become a victim.

Let me repeat that, Mr. Speaker. The same old script, which we play the same old game over and over again, we have these vigils, we come to this floor, we make these prayers, and the reality of it is, we hope and pray that someone will not become a victim.

Yet nothing gets done because the GOP leadership refuses to do anything about gun violence. The Black community is at a critical time because we have a lot to lose, because too many of our neighborhoods, unfortunately, have been subject to gun violence at a consistent rate, crimes which often goes unpunished because of unreliable and reluctant witnesses.

And the same President who asked what do we have to lose, twitters away his time in a tunnel. It seems like he has no conscience when it comes to these children dodging bullets, because he does nothing but cower and duck responsibility.

On February 14, this Nation once again witnessed a horrific tragedy that took place at a high school in Florida. Seventeen lives were taken at the hands of a gunman with too much firepower. And now, another shooting, 3 months later after Florida and 7 months after Las Vegas in October. The horror and the tragedy that shook the Florida high school should have been the last.

Yet, tragically, our Nation has lost too many loved ones at the hands of gun violence, at the point where we often see the same reaction: hand-wringing, blaming going around, but nothing is being done to stop the violence. And now in a small town in Texas, it is being done again.

The city of Philadelphia knows all too well the lives lost at the hands of gun violence. In 2017, we saw our city experience its largest homicide epidemic since 2012. There were over 317 homicides in Philadelphia, according to data from the Philadelphia Police Department. And with the continued surge of gun violence in Philadelphia, last year I handed a letter to the Pennsylvania attorney general, Josh Shapiro, outlining our Commonwealth needs to use all resources possible to advocate for commonsense gun reform.

Since I handed that letter to our Commonwealth's attorney general, we have had more heartbreak in America, including the unspeakable tragedy at a church, a place of worship and refuge in Texas, and a mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas, Florida, and now Texas.

Too often these tragedies occur because there is unimpeded access to guns. There are over 300 million guns in America. Most are owned by law-abiding citizens without harmful or dangerous intent, yet a gun in the wrong hands can lead to the horrific situations witnessed most recently in Las Vegas, Texas, and Florida.

Nearly 1.7 million children live in a home with a loaded, unlocked gun. Every year, thousands of kids are killed by firearms as a result. Our goal here in Congress must be to make sure our communities and our churches and our children are safe.

When we hear from the President on these matters, you listen to a voice that does not sound like the Commander in Chief or the soother in chief, but a President who, frankly, does not understand his job and too often lacks empathy, which was the case shown last week.

We are in the business of doing no harm. As elected officials, we are here to help move our neighborhoods forward, not backwards. I stand before you today to tell you, just as I have always done, I will continue to advocate for commonsense gun reform to keep everyone in our neighborhoods safe. It is evident that we must do more than the current status quo.

I say to you, Mr. Speaker, today, under the leadership of our chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and the leader of this Special Order, Congresswoman Clarke, that we are determined--we are determined to stay as long as we have to and continue to be in everyone's face about this issue.

Enough is enough. You have heard Members this evening say it about their districts, but it is not just in our districts. It is all across the country. Enough is enough. We all have to collectively recognize that this is not Democrat or Republican, but this is about the people in America.

So, Mr. Speaker, I say to you and to my colleague, who is leading this effort--and I thank her for showing the kind of leadership that is necessary in this effort, and she is doing a fantastic job in the great State and city of New York--in Brooklyn, that is. I want to make it very clear. She is leading this effort.

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