Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill that will reduce the scourge of violence in America. The bill is based on a very simple concept: helping the victims of violent injury before they become repeat victims or even perpetrators themselves. We can do this by expanding hospital-based violence intervention programs around the country. I was inspired to write this bill after learning about the violence intervention program at the University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. Maryland Shock Trauma is considered one of the top trauma centers in the world. And, by the way, it helped save my life years ago. Shock Trauma has a staggering 20 percent of patients who are the victims of violence, usually stabbings and shootings, that have occurred on the streets of Baltimore. Many of these patients are repeat customers, caught in a revolving door of violent reinjury. In fact, one of the leading risk factors for violent injury is a prior violent injury. Shock Trauma is taking advantage of the fact that these patients are a captive audience, confined to a bed and off the streets, if only for a few days. {time} 1315 Participants in their violence intervention program, one of the 40 that now exist across the country, receive a brief intervention in the emergency room or at the hospital bedside.…”