This Should Not Be Normal

Floor Speech

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Ms. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as southern Nevada is reeling in the wake of a horrifying mass shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

We remember Jerry Chang, Patricia Navarro-Velez, and Naoko Takemaru. All three of these faculty members were killed last week at work in the middle of the day while teaching our next generation of leaders.

Once again, 6 years after Las Vegas witnessed the Nation's deadliest mass shooting, our community is coming together to mourn another entirely preventable loss of life this week when four more people were shot and killed in the northwest valley.

As we pick up the pieces of these tragedies, our community is once again asking why. Why do we continue to accept these atrocities as normal? Why do we tolerate this violence when we have legislation before us that could save lives and stop the next tragedy before it is too late?

Mr. Speaker, I have a son in college. He is a freshman. I worry every day about the possibility that a tragedy like this would strike his campus. For many parents in my community, that worry became a reality last week. They saw texts and tweets with the breaking news that every parent in this country has come to fear: an active shooter at their child's school.

Students were instructed to run, hide, and fight. That is not normal. For our kids, this reality is even more traumatic--the sound of gunshots, barricading classroom doors, everyone hiding under their desks, silence, not knowing whether the next person to walk through that door is someone to save them or a murderous assailant. That is not normal.

Let's not forget the resulting emotional trauma that will plague everyone involved for years to come.

We are all incredibly grateful for the quick action of the first responders, the University Police Services, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, who all bravely prevented that day from becoming even deadlier.

Like so many mothers in this country, I am angry, and I am exhausted. This has become a reality for far too many Americans for far too long.

Last week's shooting at UNLV was the 80th shooting at a school this year, a year that has broken the record for mass shootings and claimed the lives of over 40,000 children, parents, and neighbors. That is not normal.

On that same day that we lost three of our own in southern Nevada, Senate Republicans were busy blocking legislation that could prevent another tragedy. Students, faculty, and university staff were hiding for their lives, cowering in fear, while Washington politicians were cowering behind the gun lobby that refuses to support policies demanded by an overwhelming majority of Americans.

That should not be normal.

Nevadans are tired of it, and so am I. We cannot and should not continue to accept this violence. Weapons of war on our streets are not normal. Barricading classroom doors is not normal. Parents being afraid to send their children to school, from kindergarten to college, is not normal.

I don't want to hold another vigil. I don't want to hold another moment of silence. What I want to do is I want this institution, which Nevadans sent me to help fix, to stop accepting this violence and to end this sick cycle of inaction.

Mr. Speaker, I am not naive enough to think that we can't prevent every shooting, but, God, please, let us at least get caught trying.

Mr. Speaker, I am begging my colleagues and anyone who is listening to consider why we have accepted this for so long. Please, let's honor these victims with action.

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