Providing for Consideration of H.R. Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Protecting Our Kids Act; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. MORELLE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. McGovern, my colleague and friend, the distinguished chair of the Committee on Rules, for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule and the underlying legislation, the Protecting Our Kids Act and the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act.

It is hard to find words to describe the despair we feel in the wake of the recent series of senseless mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, Tulsa, and too many neighborhoods across our country. For the sake of the victims, their families, and all Americans, we cannot rest until we put an end to this vicious cycle.

Madam Speaker, there have been more than 200 mass shootings already in 2022. That is more shootings than there have been days of the year. And according to a recent analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine, firearm deaths have now replaced motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for children in this country. I know the insurmountable pain of losing a child all too well, but losing a child to something entirely avoidable, that is a uniquely devastating kind of tragedy.

Madam Speaker, June is gun violence awareness month, but we are already painfully, brutally aware. What we need now is action. That is why this week we are passing legislation to strengthen red flag laws, raise the age for semiautomatic gun purchases, ban bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, and promote safe storage of firearms.

This builds on action we have already taken to enact universal background checks and marks a critical step forward in keeping dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands.

In the midst of so much pain and suffering, it is astonishing that there are those who still refuse to act. If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are not willing to be part of the solution, then please, please, please, stand aside so you are not part of the problem.

Madam Speaker, it doesn't stop here. I will continue pushing to ban assault weapons, combat gun trafficking so we can put a stop to this devastating and maddening cycle of violence. Because the absolute worst thing we can do is nothing at all.

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