Liberty and Justice for All

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.

And still I rise as a proud, unbought, unbossed, unafraid, liberated Democrat.

I rise today, Mr. Speaker, in the name of liberty and justice for all. Liberty and justice for all, not the name of liberty and justice for people of color, for people who happen to be of a different hue, but in the name of liberty and justice for all and, more specifically, in the name of liberty and justice for Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the name of liberty and justice for them because our country should be in mourning today. A life was needlessly lost, and no one of great notoriety, or a person who happens to have been a Congressperson, or a person holding some prominent position in society. They were not persons who were out in Hollywood making motion pictures; just an ordinary citizen who lost their life, and we ought to be in mourning.

We ought to be in mourning because the young man was shot for ringing a doorbell. His sin was he was ringing a doorbell. He was a person of color, yes. Apparently, according to at least one statement by an official, there is something to do here with race. But he was ringing a doorbell, and he was shot twice--once in the head.

The young woman that I speak of was White. She went into the wrong driveway, and she was shot.

Is this where we are in this country? People are going to be killed for ringing the wrong doorbell? Going to be murdered for pulling up in a driveway? Innocently, I might add.

Is this where we are?

We ought to be in mourning today. These lives matter. We ought not allow this to happen without some sort of special occasion, something that speaks to them, some sort of way of commemorating this.

We have gotten to the point now where it is just a life lost. Tomorrow there will be more. The day after that, even more.

What is wrong with us?

Can not we see where we are headed? We stand on the eve of destruction and don't know it. We are going to destroy ourselves.

Mr. Speaker, we have the power to do something about this. We cannot allow constitutional carry, meaning just get a gun and not have to take any sort of test. You don't have to prove that you are a person who can manage this level of lethality. You can buy a gun because you have the money to buy it. Then only God knows what you will do with it.

I am not contending that I know the history of these two persons. That is not it. But I am saying to you that if we don't get a handle on what we are doing with this level of lethality by placing these weapons in the hands of people willy-nilly, we are going to see more of this. It can be your child next.

Do not assume that it cannot happen to you. It can be your daughter. These were the children of somebody, and they deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I am totally, completely, and absolutely antithetical to this notion of constitutional carry, where you can just buy a gun because you have the money to buy it. We ought to have red flag laws in this country. We ought to be able to decide whether or not we are going to allow people to have lethality that can, at a moment's notice, take tens of lives.

Gun manufacturers ought to be held accountable for placing this level of lethality within the communities. At some point, gun manufacturers are going to lose this immunity they have to being held accountable. The Congress never should have given it to them.

This is a sad day in the history of this country. Two people--it doesn't matter about their color--two people were shot because they happened to be in the wrong place in the presence of persons with lethality.

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