Secure Guns and Protect Our Kids

Floor Speech

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Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, last week we read a powerful story under the headline: ``One Week in April, Four Toddlers Shot and Killed Themselves.''

Last year, toddlers shot someone with unsecured guns at a rate of one per week, and we are outpacing that horrific rate this year.

I stand here over and over, begging for Congress to act on gun violence, but today I plead for gun owners to be smart about the guns in their homes.

The groups Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety are educating Americans and are encouraging gun owners to secure guns in their homes and vehicles, to model responsible behavior, to ask about unsecured guns in other homes, to recognize the risks of teen suicides, and to tell their peers to be smart by sharing these simple steps to stop heartbreaking violence. Our society is saturated with guns. There are 357 million guns and there are 317 million people--the highest concentration in the world.

As The New York Times noted, if owners do not secure these guns, they will continue to end up in the hands of ``shooters who need help tying their shoelaces, too young sometimes to even say the word `gun,' killed by their own curiosity.''

Mr. Speaker, on this gun issue, let's come together, all of us, to secure guns and to protect our kids.

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