Doris Matsui: “We lose over 30,000 people a year to gun violence. We must never forget that that number is made up of thousands of…”

“We lose over 30,000 people a year to gun violence. We must never forget that that number is made up of thousands of individual stories: a family grieving over the death of a child, a teenager missing a friend at school, a son who must get used to spending holidays every year without a parent. One of my constituents in Sacramento lost her cousin and her cousin's son to gun violence right before Christmas. She wrote to me and said, ``I would like to see a world where such crime is minimized . . . if not erased. Gun control is an important and essential step in the path toward nonviolence.'' We must listen to these stories that have become all too common. Just over the weekend, another person in my community was shot and killed. Every moment we don't act matters. Must we feel vulnerable in our churches, sending our children to theaters or to the schools? We are not going to accept this bloodshed any longer. We must disarm the hate and vote on real solutions for the American people. Democrats are calling for a vote on two pieces of bipartisan, commonsense legislation. We must not wait any longer to answer the call for action.”