On the recordOctober 4, 2017
America has again been rocked by a mass shooting, and our hearts ache and our hands pray for the victims and those who are recovering. You can't help but watch the countless scores of video accounts and not feel an urge to act. My constituents ask: Are we helpless to stop the next mass shooting? We are only helpless once the trigger is squeezed and you are in the pathway of a bullet, but we are not helpless in this House. In fact, if we come together, we are more powerful than any weapon. Aren't the dead owed a dialogue, a conversation about whether we should have background checks, a talk about whether people who have weapons of war should only be warriors, and what about talking about restrictions on ammunition purchases? I refuse to accept the tradeoff that we must allow and accept that a mass shooting is going to happen in this country for an unfettered access to firearms. If the police officers who went into that building so blindly and were so brave could do that and show that courage, we can come into this building and have the courage to have a dialogue for those victims. ____________________
