Protecting Our Kids Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I commend him for his leadership in bringing this important legislation to the floor. Protecting our kids; what could be more important than that? I thank the gentleman for channeling the ideas and enthusiasms of so many Members on both sides of the aisle as he brings this bipartisan legislation to the floor.

I thank Mr. Nadler for his leadership, and I thank the task force led by Mr. Mike Thompson of California for his important work advancing the background check partisan legislation, as well as Mr. Clyburn for his legislation that is already over on the Senate side.

Madam Speaker, but today, we are doing more. Today, we were called to action by our colleague, Lucy McBath, who told us that today we must make history to protect the children, and we are going to make history by making progress.

So I thank all of our Members, so many Members who have been so important to this legislation. I thank them on behalf of the courageous survivors of gun violence who have spoken out, out of respect for those who lost their lives and with appreciation for the gravity of this issue that we come to be on this floor.

Madam Speaker, as the families from Buffalo to Uvalde bury their loved ones, even more communities have been hit by gun violence. Just last weekend, Americans watched in horror as at least 13 mass shootings unfolded across the country: from Philadelphia to Chattanooga to Phoenix to Grand Rapids.

As the data shows, the challenge of gun violence goes much further than these mass killings. Every night on our streets, Americans are being killed in gun crimes. And every day, our Nation loses Americans to suicides and accidents. This is a tragic daily massacre, which rarely makes the headlines or the evening news, but it is there.

So here we are, for the children. When those who were advocating gun violence or perpetrating it went into the classrooms, they crossed a line. It is terrible the gun violence that we have had in our country. But that they would go into Newtown and shoot little children who are barely out of diapers; and again now in Texas, these beautiful children in elementary school, and everything that happened in between, it was an assault on the culture of our country that our children would not be able to go to school without fear or concern about their safety.

Our children are, as President Kennedy said, our greatest resource and our best hope for the future. They are our precious treasure. Everything we do is for the children. And for the children, we must stop this gun violence in our country and restore their confidence in their safety, wherever they may be. So we are on a crusade for the children, and sadly now, by the children.

Children testifying in committee. Children coming to events. Last week, I had a 5th grader come to a Wear Orange rally that we had in California, where she said she lost both her mother and her father in separate gun violence incidents. In 5th grade, speaking at the podium so courageously. Children turning their grief, their experience now, not just--it would be enough to end the violence of losing a loved one, but to witness it and be a victim of it in the classroom. A crusade for the children by the children and of the children in terms of our motivation to stop this for our precious children.

Indeed, America had lost more children from gun violence than any other cause.

Does that embarrass you to think that in our country more children have died from gun violence than any other cause?

These stories are tragically all too common in America today. Countless more than those who died are forever changed by the horrors of gun violence that they saw firsthand or that they experienced in their families.

It is sickening that our children are forced to live in this constant fear. And make no mistake, these gunmen who choose to shoot at innocent children are desecrating, again, our culture--a culture where all of us, all of our kids must and should feel safe, whether it is in school, in church, the movies, or any other place.

Madam Speaker, protecting our children can and must be a unifying mission for our Nation because they are our, as I said, our national treasure. That is why, under the unyielding leadership of our chairman, Mr. Nadler, the House will pass the Protecting Our Kids Act today. This bold package includes commonsense measures that will make an enormous difference to save lives.

Who wouldn't vote to raise the age from 18 to 21 for a person to have a weapon of war?

Who wouldn't vote to raise the age to take weapons of war out of the hands of teenagers?

Who wouldn't vote to get illegal guns off of our streets by cracking down on gun trafficking which is a danger to people but also to law enforcement?

Who wouldn't vote for background checks on ghost gun purchases which our law enforcement tells us is a major concern out there?

Who wouldn't vote to protect children from stolen weapons or accidental shootings with safe storage requirements?

Who wouldn't vote to ban bump stocks--that was President Trump's executive order--bump stocks from civilian use or outlawing high- capacity magazines designed for massacres not for killing varmints.

These measures will not only help stem the tide of mass murder but address the equally urgent and wide range of daily gun deaths. Let us salute the many Members who have worked persistently to craft this strong legislation, written to earn bipartisan support that the American people expect and deserve.

Today's package is just one step in the House's relentless fight to stop the bloodshed. Our Democratic majority, as I mentioned earlier, has twice passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act and the Enhanced Background Checks Act, which together would put our Nation on a path toward universal background checks.

Tomorrow, thanks again to Congresswoman McBath and Congressman Carbajal, we will pass the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Act, otherwise known as the Red Flag Act. This will help keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves or others.

Soon, we will vote for Mr. Cicilline's Active Shooter Alert Act to create an AMBER alert-style notification during a mass shooting, a measure widely supported by law enforcement.

And the House will continue to consider additional actions we can take that have a proven record of saving lives. When I talk about these different things, people say, well, what difference is that going to make?

Well, the cumulative effect is a big one. We know there are negotiations going on in the Senate and we are prayerful, we are prayerful about those. Hopefully, we can make some advancement.

Because for all of us who have met again and again and again with the survivors of gun violence, some coming time and again to check up on what is happening, others new to that horrible club that none of us wants to be a member of, they just want something to happen.

Years ago, when I met with the survivors of Pulse, I said: What can we do to be of comfort to you? They said: Just make sure it doesn't happen to someone else.

That is what they said. They didn't say: I need this; I need that. They said: Just make sure it doesn't happen to someone else.

Right now, in the eyes of survivors and indeed all Americans, their eyes are on us in the Congress to see whether we have the courage, the commitment, and the conviction to protect the children.

For some in Congress, a moment of silence is good enough for them, a moment of silence. As Mr. Higgins said when he talked about Buffalo, a moment of silence now, but action after. Now, we are taking that action.

So many of our colleagues have talked about incidents in their district, personal experiences shared by people who have been victims of gun violence. Mr. Espaillat talked about what happened in his district.

Again, so many of you have come speaking of the horror of it all, and every time it happens, it is as if it has happened for the first time because the horror is so fresh. But it is not the first time for the victims who have to relive so much of the experience.

To those who a moment of silence is good enough because you don't have the courage to take a vote to protect the children, I would say your political survival is totally insignificant compared to the survival of our children.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together with a strong ``aye'' vote on all the provisions in the bill for the final package and to do so as part of a crusade of, by, and for the children. I urge an ``aye'' vote on the Protecting Our Kids legislation.

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