Fix America's Gun Problem
Floor Speech
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Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because we have a gun problem in the United States. This problem has been ongoing for years, but the continued events make this reality all the more stark.
Kaylin Gillis was shot and killed for turning around in a driveway, something so many of us have done.
Heather Roth and Payton Washington, two cheerleaders, were shot for mistakenly getting into a car they thought was theirs, something so many of us have done.
Kinsley White and her parents were shot for retrieving a basketball in a neighbor's yard, something so many of us have done.
Ralph Yarl was shot for ringing the wrong doorbell when picking up his siblings, something so many of us have done.
All of this violence, not to mention the mass shootings in Dadeville, Louisville, and Nashville this month, reminds us that going about your daily life can quickly turn deadly in this country.
Death should not be a consequence for simply living our lives. We cannot continue to look away from the thousands of lives taken by gun violence every year that barely register in the headlines.
This past weekend, 17 people were shot in Chicago, including a 3- year-old from Calumet Heights and a 6-year-old from Woodlawn. The weekend before, 10 were killed and 26 wounded. Four were killed and 21 injured the weekend before that.
Whether it is from a fight gone too far, an accidental discharge, a stray bullet, or death by suicide, guns make our communities more dangerous and restrict other people's freedoms. Walking down the street or playing with your kids on the front porch shouldn't be dangerous activities.
I am sick and tired of gun violence only being acknowledged in Chicago to say that gun laws don't work. This is simply not true.
According to trace data from the ATF, only 49 percent of crime guns used in Illinois are from Illinois. Illegal gun trafficking from States with fewer gun protections makes my constituents less safe.
Whether it is background checks, consumer safety laws, community violence intervention, or cracking down on gun trafficking, gun safety laws work. States that have fewer gun laws have higher gun deaths.
Already in 2023, 13,000 people have died because of a gun, and another 10,000 have been wounded. These numbers include homicides, suicides, mass shootings, and daily gun violence.
One thing these incidents all have in common is that access to a firearm made them more deadly.
This is a public health crisis that is painfully American. Unlike our peer countries, life expectancy in this country is not rising after the worst of the pandemic has abated. Life expectancy continues to decline because our young people are dying, and too many of those deaths are from guns.
The data shows that violence begets violence begets violence. More violence means fewer job opportunities, fewer education opportunities, and fewer opportunities to build a healthy family.
The solution is not cutting Social Security, not cutting Medicaid, not adding onerous work requirements, not cutting school funding. The solution is better gun safety laws, and we must invest in our communities to stop the cycle of violence.
We must dispense with the false choice between better gun safety measures and what some dare to call freedom. A constant, slow-motion massacre is not the price of freedom. This is a farce.
What about our freedom to go to the grocery store and church, to go to school, to ride on the bus, to play in the park, to come out of choir practice, to get coffee from a coffee shop without fear of getting shot?
No matter who they are or where they grew up, someone being shot to death is not an inevitability. They died because we failed them. We failed their family. We failed their community.
I am tired of failing. We have the tools to stop this senseless violence. We just need the courage to use them.
I have been fighting for stronger gun safety laws since my first day in Congress, and I am not going to stop. I can't imagine looking at a mom who has lost her child or a brother that has lost his sister and telling them to calm down, to stop asking for something to change.
We all deserve the freedom to live without fear. Thoughts and prayers are nice, but they won't save lives. Doing nothing is not an option.
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