Congressional Black Caucus

Floor Speech

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Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida and the gentleman from Illinois for leading this Special Order hour, which is a great responsibility given to them by the chairman of this body.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the recent expulsion of two elected members of the Tennessee Legislature and the threat this action poses for American democracy.

On April 6, two Black elected officials, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, as we all know, were expelled from the Tennessee State Legislature. They were involved in peaceful protests to demand legislators pass stricter gun laws in the State.

Why they were engaged in that peaceful protest is because their colleagues had tried to silence them so many times during normal debate, in committee, and on the floor of the Tennessee Legislature that they finally had to take these actions in order to be heard. They were expelled because of that protest.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud of those young men. They stood up for what they felt was right, and they took their opportunity, as elected officials of that body, to be heard. If it took rebellion to be heard, a megaphone to be heard on the floor, then that is what they had to do.

I was honored to be part of something similar that the Congressional Black Caucus led on this floor not too many years ago. I see my colleague Joyce Beatty and my colleague Yvette Clarke here. They were both part of that rebellion. We sat down on the House floor, which is against the rules.

We sat down because of the same issue these young men spoke up for: gun violence. We were tired. John Lewis led us, as he had done so many times before, and we sat right down on that floor and held the House of Representatives for over 24 hours.

Our colleagues tried to come back and disrupt us and scare us, but we were unbowed. We continued to hold this floor until we had people understand that we were serious about this.

Our children are being killed all over this Nation, and the unfortunate thing that happens with so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is that, until it happens in their community, until it happens to their friends, until it happens to their family, they don't want to talk about it. Let it happen in their community and to their friends and to their family, and then we have to do something.

It is just like the fentanyl problem, a major problem in this country now. Urban communities screamed about the opioid issue for 20 years, and nobody did anything. Now that it is impacting their families, it is a major health issue.

We have to understand that all issues in this country should be looked at in that manner. These young men were brave and articulate. It made sense for them to protest the horrible and unnecessary gun violence that occurs every day in this country.

In March, a former student entered the Covenant School in Nashville and killed three students and three adults. The school was part of Nashville's Covenant Presbyterian Church. Like millions of Americans, Tennessee residents are sick and tired of gun violence.

I have many Members behind me, so I will not belabor the point, but, Mr. Speaker, when are we going to address this issue?

The majority of the people in this country say they are willing to have reasonable gun background checks to make sure criminals or people with mental illness do not have these weapons because we are finding many times those are the people that are having these issues.

Why can't we deal with that? It is not unreasonable. Every American has a Second Amendment right to own a gun, but we should make sure we keep guns out of certain people's hands. That is what we need to do.

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