On the recordOctober 7, 2015
Last Thursday Americans witnessed yet another tragedy with the fatal shooting of nine people in Roseburg, Oregon, five young kids who had so much more life left to live, three adults who had gone back to school to better themselves and their families, and an assistant professor of English who used his writing talents to teach others, all gone too soon. Their lives are lost in tragedy, the kind of tragedy that our Nation has suffered with increasing regularity. There have been more mass shootings this year than there have been calendar days, 294 mass shootings in less than 280 days. In 2015 alone, there have been nearly 40,000 gun violence tragedies, with nearly 10,000 people killed and 20,000 wounded. Yet, sadly, each gun violence tragedy is met with another tragedy here in Congress, the tragedy of inaction. People are dying. People are dying from gun violence every single day in America, and this Congress does nothing. As President Obama said last week, ``We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.'' I have been a Member of the House of Representatives for nearly 7 years. In that time, tens of thousands of lives have been lost, but this body has refused to hold even one hearing addressing the gun violence epidemic that is plaguing our country. In that time, not even once have we had a vote on the floor on anything, anything related to gun violence, and it is not for lack of ideas.…
