Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McBATH. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, the Federal Extremist Protection Order Act, a bill that would empower loved ones and law enforcement to help prevent mass shootings before they happen.

Every family in every community in our Nation deserves access to these lifesaving measures. No child, no parent deserves to live in fear of gun violence.

And we are paying for it. We are paying for this gun violence every single day. Day after day, hour after hour, we are paying for the weapons of war on our streets with the blood of our children in our schools.

We are paying for the unfettered access with mothers and fathers waiting in line for a DNA test, forced to find out if it is their child that is riddled with bullets and maimed beyond recognition; if it is their child whose blood now blankets the floor of the classroom where they should be learning math and science and English.

We are paying for this deadly gun culture with the lives of American people; with the lives of those that we in this body took an oath to protect.

The American people are absolutely exhausted. We cannot continue to be the only country in the world where we let gun violence happen again and again and again. An entire generation is growing up learning that the adults that they look up to cannot, or rather, choose not to protect them.

Now, we all agree that this status quo is unacceptable. We all understand that the murder of our children cannot continue. We need policies that will give our law enforcement the tools that they need, the tools they have asked for to help keep guns out of the hands of those who are a danger to themselves or to others.

How many more victims are we going to memorialize?

What rights do our children have as they grow in our lives and in our hearts?

Parents across the country, in every State, in every community, know the fear that accompanies the love that we have for our children. It is a primal fear, a helpless fear, a love so deep that we worry and wonder every day where is my child? Are they safe? Are they going to make it home today?

Don't our parents have the right to send their kids off to school without the fear of them not coming home?

Don't our children have the right to live free from the trauma that only stepping over a friend covered in blood could ever bring?

How many more parents must receive the phone call that I did when I was told that my son was murdered; the phone call that confirms that fear that my child is dead and that I was unable to protect him; the phone call that leads you to cry out to God in your grief?

Was my child afraid? Did he feel pain as the bullets ripped through his skin? Did he know he was loved more than he could ever imagine?

We can do better than that. We must be better than this. We cannot be the only nation in the world where our children are torn apart on Tuesday and their deaths are gone from the news cycle by Wednesday.

And that is why, in the decade since my son was taken from me by a man with a gun, simply for playing loud music in his car, that I made a promise to Jordan and to my community, and to the American people, a promise that I would continue to fight this battle for the rest of my life, the fight to make sure that not one more parent is forced to join this ever-growing club, the club that no mother or no father ever wants to be a part of.

I promised that I would take all of the devotion as a mother that I have for my child, all the love that I poured out of my soul into my child, that I would do everything in my power to keep Jordan's community safe; yes, you, my community; that the time would come where we would be able to make a difference in the lives of our children and our children's children, and this is that time. This is that moment.

We are facing a challenge of our lifetime on the issue of our era.

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Mrs. McBATH. This is that time. This is that moment. We are facing the challenge of our lifetime. This is the issue of our era, and today, we must vote with the majority of American people that agree with us.

We vote to provide law enforcement and family members the tools that they need to prevent these mass shootings. We vote to save lives. We vote to do what is right. We vote to stop the uniquely American horror that is ripping our families apart.

God bless us. And I ask God to cover us in doing the right thing.

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Mrs. McBATH. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Carbajal).

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Mrs. McBATH. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

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