Let's Do Something About Gun Violence

Floor Speech

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Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, an American is killed with a gun every 16 minutes. And what is Congress' response?

Well, here is what we have become really good at. We have become really good at coming together for moments of silence. We do it every time there is a mass shooting. And, in 2015, there were 330 mass shootings.

We ask: Why can't we do more?

And our response, the response too often, is: We don't need to do anything else. There are plenty of laws on the books.

Why don't we enforce them? Well, the fact is that there is one thing we can do that is not on the books. We can require that everyone who buys a gun has a background check.

If you buy a gun in a store, you have to get a background check. But for gun shows, 100 gun shows a week, 5,200 gun shows a year, 5 million people traveling through those gun shows, there is no background check.

There is no background check for the millions of Internet ads or classified ads.

Let's pass mandatory background checks to help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. That is what we can do, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, there is too much at stake for us to continue to ignore this tragedy. It is time for Congress to act.

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