Congressional Black Caucus Calls for Gun Safety Legislation

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this evening, we gathered on this floor to observe a moment of silence. We have been doing that quite a bit over the last several years, but it seems to me that it is time for us to take some action on something that is very important to the American people.

This week, our Nation is collectively mourning the senseless murder of eight people at the hands of a white supremacist, a neo-Nazi shooter in Allen, Texas. In the days since, we have heard gut-wrenching stories of pain and devastation, like 6-year-old William Cho, who lost his entire family in the massacre, and the deaths of sisters Daniela and Sofia Mendoza, 11 and 8, who were both in elementary school.

Then there is Steven Spainhouer, an everyday citizen who tried to administer aid after the tragedy. I watched him on television this week, and he was very vivid.

If my memory serves, he is a former police officer, and he talked about how he felt when he turned over a body to remove a child from underneath its dead mother's body.

This tragedy comes nearly 1 year after the lives of 19 children and 2 teachers were taken in Uvalde, Texas, and just a few weeks before the 8-year anniversary of the mass shooting perpetrated by another white supremacist at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

We have taken some important steps in response to these tragedies. I have reintroduced my bill to close the deadly Charleston loophole that allowed the Mother Emanuel AME Church shooter to obtain a gun. Because of his record, he should not have been able to get a gun.

Because this Congress has refused to close this loophole, which says if you can't complete the background check in 3 days, irrespective of your background, irrespective of whether or not you are eligible to have a gun, if, for any reason, that background check is not completed in 3 days, you can still get the gun. That is silly.

We have no idea why that young man's information was keyed in wrong. Did he intentionally give the wrong information, or did West Columbia get confused with Columbia? They found the problem, but it was too late. It was more than 3 days. He already had the gun, and nine of my constituents lost their lives because of that loophole.

We refuse to say we will close it. That makes no sense.

We enacted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to require enhanced background checks for people under 21, provide protection for victims of domestic violence, and institute criminal offenses for Federal and State straw purchasing and gun trafficking and some significant investments in mental health treatment.

In a shocking and long-overdue turn of events, Texas Republicans, on Monday, unexpectedly allowed a bill that would raise the purchase age for semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 to advance out of a Texas House committee. I am very pleased to see that, but I am wondering what will happen when that bill gets to the floor.

Raising the age to purchase a gun made for war from 18 to 21, that, to me, tells it all--to allow a teenager that we would not allow to walk into a restaurant and order an alcoholic beverage but will be allowed to purchase a weapon of war.

For all of our progress, more must be done.

There have been over 200 mass shootings this year alone. I think we all know the definition of a mass shooting is four or more injuries, irrespective of whether or not they are fatal.

In 2019 and 2020, we didn't reach this grim milestone until late June. Between 2016 and 2018, the country passed 200 mass shootings in late July. Two years ago, late June; 2 years before that, late July; this year, early May. What will it be next year? This epidemic is growing more and more deadly with each passing year.

My Democratic colleagues understand the weight of these tragedies and are prepared to advance the legislation needed to protect our communities.

To our colleagues across the aisle and in the Senate, I say silence gives consent. For us to remain silent on this issue is to give consent to these tragedies.

It is not enough to denounce the actions of mass shooters and offer thoughts and prayers in tweets and on cable news. My colleagues on the other side's refusal to join House Democrats in advancing serious gun violence prevention measures signifies that your silence and your consent represent your feelings.

Legislative actions such as closing the Charleston loophole, strengthening red flag laws, and getting weapons of war off our streets would not prohibit law-abiding citizens from purchasing a gun.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why it is that all of us can readily agree that there should be a limit on the First Amendment of the United States that protects speech but no limit on the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution that authorizes the possession of firearms.

Nobody wants to take anybody's guns away. We are trying to take measures that will keep guns out of the hands of hateful people like these white supremacists who are killing people because they don't like their skin color, people who are mentally ill who have had all kinds of fantasies that are killing people because we do not have the intestinal fortitude to put constraints on their abilities to purchase these guns.

These policies, which have broad support among the American people, would save lives without infringing on anybody's Second Amendment rights.

Mr. Speaker, I implore my Republican colleagues and the Senate to join us in taking a stand to protect our communities. This epidemic will not end until we act.

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