National Gun Violence Awareness Month
Floor Speech
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Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to co-anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour, along with my distinguished colleague from Louisiana (Mr. Carter).
For the next 60 minutes, members of CBC have the opportunity to speak directly to the American people on Gun Violence Awareness Month. It is an issue of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, and the constituents we represent.
Mr. Speaker, on March 7, 2023, I stood in the well and took my oath of office into this body. My children stood with me. My then 13-year- old son, who was very excited, impressed some people with his dance moves.
Less than a week later, my son, Jackson, showed up at school to find out one of his classmates was dead. He had killed himself accidentally using a loaded gun as a prop to film a music video. My son was devastated.
He was devastated again when 2 months later the school year abruptly came to an end when Shawn Jackson was shot and killed minutes after receiving his high school diploma.
These are 2 of the 46,728 people who died from gun-related injuries in 2023 alone. They were among the average 13,300 Black Americans who die of gun violence every single year.
Sierra Jenkins, Jahiem Dickerson, Devon Harris, Samiyah Yellardy, Tyshawn White, Jaiden Carter, Kenneth Cooper, Markiya Dickson, and Lorenzo Smith are just some of the names of people whose lives were ended by gun violence. Some were on purpose. Some were by their own hand. Some were accidental.
Too many of our communities are disproportionately impacted by this violence. We cannot allow this violence to become normalized. We must stand together to advance commonsense gun safety legislation, invest in community violence intervention programs, and address the root causes of gun violence.
Year after year, we go back to our districts. We go to vigils. We watch the news. We see tragedies. We come back here. We stand for a moment of silence. We give our thoughts and prayers. Nothing changes. The overwhelming consensus of the American people is that we have to do something.
As a State legislator, I focused on addressing the root causes of gun violence. I thought there would be bipartisan support for that. To a certain extent, there was.
I championed investment in the creation of a Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention Fund with Delegate Marcia Price from Newport News when I was in the State senate. This program and fund would provide a pathway to research demographics and trends and implement evidence-based solutions to address the root causes of gun violence.
That is because gun violence in Richmond, Virginia, is different from gun violence in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is different from gun violence in New York City. It is different from gun violence in Newark, New Jersey. We need to get at the root causes.
For too many of our young people, the root causes are that access to guns is very easy and that they weren't taught to regulate emotions. Things that in my age were settled on the playground with a fist are now settled with a gun. Mr. Speaker, you can call someone a name on social media, and the next thing you know, you are shot dead. We need to do something to address that gun violence.
I was proud to come to Congress to try to continue to work on that, but in April, the Trump administration terminated nearly 400 grants from the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs that support everything from victim services to substance use, from mental health treatment to juvenile justice and child protection.
These are grants that were used to address the root causes of gun violence in our communities. There have been deep cuts to the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative, the largest source of Federal funding for community violence intervention, funding authorized by Congress in 2022 that has invested $300 million in community violence programming and research. Now, about one-half of those investments have been cut.
All this does is invite tragedy back into our communities. We can't let it happen.
As far as Black people and the communities that we represent, we are only 14 percent of the U.S. population, but we represent 60 percent of all firearm homicide victims. A Black person in America is 11.5 times more likely to die from gun violence.
While gun violence became the leading cause of death of all children for the first time in 2020, it has been the leading cause of death for Black children since 2006.
We must do more. We must do more because I can't tell you, Mr. Speaker, how difficult it is when every time there is a mass shooting, every time someone is shot going to the grocery store, playing in a park, going to the movie theater, turning in the wrong driveway, showing up at school after graduation, on and on, every time it happens, my son and my daughter look at me, and they ask: Am I next?
Do you know how difficult that is, Mr. Speaker? Do you know how hard it is, Mr. Speaker, when your children who know someone who has died from gun violence have to spend their days in school in active shooter drills rather than learning?
Enough is enough, Mr. Speaker. We must do more. Thoughts and prayers are not enough.
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Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, Claudia Quaatey, a 16-year-old who dreamed of becoming a nurse, killed by gun violence.
Cecilia Thomas, a 5-month-old, shot and killed in Chicago, a 5-month old.
I now yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly).
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Ms. McCLELLAN. T'Yonna Major, a 9-year-old gymnast until gun violence cut her life short.
Kingston Campbell, a 6-year-old killed when shooters were firing into his home.
They can't speak for themselves. We speak for them.
Clarke), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan and Congressman Troy Carter for anchoring the Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour.
I rise tonight with my colleagues of the CBC to recognize Gun Violence Awareness Month and to bring attention to the impact of gun violence on Black communities around our Nation.
For decades, gun violence has been an epidemic that has had disproportionate and devastating impacts on Black communities. In fact, the facts are sobering and clear. On average, more than 13,000 Black people die from gun violence each year. In the United States, Black Americans die from gun violence at nearly three times the rate of White Americans.
In 2023, firearm homicides against Black Americans rose over 23 percent. In that same year, firearm suicides in Black communities increased 50 percent, and unintentional shooting deaths rose 11 percent. In the 5 years since the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, police shootings of Black Americans have continued to rise.
These are not simply statistics. These are the heartbreaking stories of tragedy and loss that should shake our collective conscience as Americans of goodwill.
From the racist murder of nine parishioners at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to the racist mass shooting at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that claimed the lives of 10 people, to countless police shootings of unarmed Black men, women, and children, our Nation has, unfortunately, bore witness to far too many horrific acts of gun violence against Black communities.
This crisis of gun violence requires action, not thoughts and prayers as the American people have become far too accustomed to hearing from many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Instead of working to pass legislation to keep our communities safe from gun violence, the Republicans included in their reconciliation package a provision that calls for the elimination of registration and ownership requirements for silencers that have been in place since the National Firearms Act went into effect in 1934.
By contrast, when House Democrats were in the majority in the 117th Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus was instrumental in passing the most significant piece of gun reform legislation in nearly 30 years with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden.
With that historic legislation, we took meaningful steps to protect our children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the overall threat of gun violence around our country by extending background checks for firearm purchases, clarifying licensing requirements, funding red flag laws and crisis intervention programs, and weakening the boyfriend loophole.
While we have made strides toward commonsense gun reform, more needs to be done to keep our communities safe. During this National Gun Violence Awareness Month and throughout the year, the Congressional Black Caucus recognizes the critical need for reforming our gun safety laws to protect all of our communities.
Our caucus remains committed to meeting this crisis with the urgency of now to end the senseless acts of violence that take thousands of innocent lives every year. That time for reform is now.
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Ms. McCLELLAN. De'Evan McFall, he dreamed of being an NFL player until gun violence took his life at 11.
Zahmire Lopez, he had dance moves and rap skills until gun violence took his life at 8.
Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for co- anchoring this very important Special Order hour.
Mr. Speaker, every 7 hours, a child is killed by gunfire in the United States. Thus far in 2025, nearly 100 American children did not make it to their 12th birthday because they were killed by gunfire.
Every single child lost is an unfathomable tragedy. Families are destroyed, and communities are left in anguish, but the cycle of death and grief is far more prolific in the Black community. Black Americans die by gun violence at a rate 2.7 times greater than their White peers, including a 50 percent increase in firearm suicides in 2023.
Communities across our country face this daily reality, but too many powerful people here in Washington, D.C., feel too comfortably removed from it. They will call for a moment of silence and then move on, and nothing will happen. Rather than committing to fight this uniquely American terror, they will find any excuse to do nothing. It is video games. It is mental health. It is anything but guns.
Congress has the power to act to keep our young people safe from their leading cause of death: gun violence. We also have a moral obligation to act to free our society from the fear that comes with dropping our children and grandchildren off at school or the mall or the movies or even a house party.
Enough moments of silence. These moments of silence don't save a single, solitary life.
Now is the moment in time that we must act to save our generations.
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Ms. McCLELLAN. Sir'Antonio Brown, a 6-year-old killed near his Kansas City home by guns.
King, a Georgia 9-year-old killed by another child handling an unsecure gun.
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Ms. McCLELLAN. Jakobe Fanning, a 16-year-old killed in a South Carolina shooting.
Izaiah, a 16-year-old in Maryland shot near his high school.
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Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, Serabi Medina lost her mother to gun violence, and then at 9, she was killed on her way home with ice cream for her father, cut down by gun violence by a neighbor.
Mr. Speaker, how many more? How many more children on the way to school, at school, at the bus stop, at the grocery store, in the park, in front of their house, in bed? How many more? How many more children have to die before we act?
How many more women stuck in domestic violence situations who try to get out, who get protective orders against their partner only to have that partner go get a gun and kill them? How many more?
How many more people, desperate, take their own life because getting a gun is so easy, much easier than getting the mental health treatment that they need? How many more?
How many more thoughts are we going to need? How many more prayers? Mr. Speaker, enough is enough.
When I was a kid in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I think the biggest thing that my mom worried about when I went to school was whether I would eat the lunch that they served. Do you know what it is like to put your child on a bus and wonder if they are going to come home?
Do you know what it is like to go to a park to celebrate a birthday, and your child doesn't come home? Too many people do. Too many Black people do. Too many people in our communities are disproportionately impacted by this public health crisis.
Even when we find bipartisan agreement--I was able to find bipartisan agreement to get a fund created in the Virginia government, a gun violence prevention grant fund, yet the Federal funding that was available to fund the programs that are proven to address the root causes of gun violence are being cut. It makes no sense.
Every day, our children see this. They are traumatized by the mass shooter drills. They are traumatized by the friends who are there one day and gone the next.
Every single time my son sees a story of someone dying because of a gun, he asks me, ``Am I next?'' I say to him, ``Jackson, I am doing everything in my power to make sure you are not.''
I can't do it alone. The Congressional Black Caucus can't do it alone. We need 218 people in the House and 60 in the Senate who are willing to do something more than thoughts and prayers. We need a President and an administration that says enough is enough.
If you don't want to do anything to actually take the guns off the street, then at least invest in the root causes of violence because it is too easy for someone desperate enough to take their life to get a gun and do it. It is too easy for somebody who wants to start a race war to get a gun and walk into a church where people pray with him, and he shoots them dead. Enough is enough.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your attention. I thank the Members of the Congressional Black Caucus who joined me tonight.
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