On the recordJanuary 11, 2016
I rise to speak about the issue of gun violence and to commend the President for announcing last week a set of commonsense steps to make our country safer. The need for action to reduce gun violence in America is urgent. About 32,000 Americans are killed by guns each year. Every day on average 297 men, women, and children are shot, 89 of them fatally. Last year, by one count, there were at least 372 mass shooting incidents where 4 or more people were shot--more than one a day in America. In the city of Chicago alone last year, 2,939 people were injured by gunfire, and at least 88 people have been shot so far this year, 2016. The 468 homicides in Chicago last year sadly led the Nation--a number larger than the number of fatalities in the cities of New York or Los Angeles, which are much larger cities. There is an epidemic of gun violence in America. Can you imagine if 32,000 Americans were dying each year from Ebola or from tainted drugs or at the hands of terrorists? Lawmakers would pull out all the stops to bring down those deaths. Compare the death toll from gun violence to the death toll from terrorism in the United States. According to the New America Foundation, since 9/11 a total of 93 people have been killed by terrorist incidents in America--48 have been killed by rightwing extremists and 45 have been killed by Islamic terrorists.…
