Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this week is National Gun Violence Survivors Awareness Week. A decade ago, in this spot, I gave my first speech in the House about the epidemic of gun violence in our Nation. I could not then have imagined two things: First, that Congress would fail to take significant action to address gun violence in our Nation; and second, that mass shootings would continue to grow as an epidemic. Last year alone, there were 647 mass shootings in our country, including in my community of Highland Park. For all the hundreds of communities that are affected and part of this tragic union from the devastation of gun violence, the effects are permanent. Seven months ago, in my community, at 10:14 a.m. on July 4 at the Independence Day parade in Highland Park, a monster with an assault rifle climbed a ladder and fired 83 bullets in less than a minute into the festive crowd below. He murdered seven wonderful people, wounded dozens more, and traumatized an entire community. The devastation and damage to a human body from these weapons are inconceivable. We have to address gun violence. We have to pass an assault weapons ban that was introduced this week. I call on our communities to act. ____________________”