Cori Bush

St. Louis and I thank you, Chairwoman Maloney for convening this urgent, urgent hearing.

This is political. This is not about babies. This is about that control.

Elect people who give a damn about you. Elect people who actually care about you.

You might be able to take the right from me, but you can’t take my voice from me.

I cannot imagine right now, if I had a child standing taller than I, that I raised, that I would look into, in the face of and know that this was the child of my rapist.

We got to make sure that it’s known this is political. This is not about babies. This is about that control.

I hope that when they -- the still of the night hits them, and when they sit, and they have to think about all that they have done for political points and political gain, I hope that their conscience starts to beat them up.

I hope that when they... have to think about all that they have done for political points and political gain, I hope that their conscience starts to beat them up.

Yes, nine unelected Supreme Court Justices; yes, that decision came from them.

It's a far right extremist, racist, classist, bigoted Supreme Court that's doing the bidding for these GOP members that are trying to just out Trump each other.

I remember being 17 and I needed an abortion, I chose to get an abortion. I made that decision at 17 after a rape, but I was able to go and pick up the phone and make an appointment and come here to this place where I stand right now.

How do we talk about saving lives but we arm people to be able to take lives, and we arm them easily, and we arm them from the standpoint of it is my right. What about life?

The gun industry, for its part, has innovated not to make guns or us safer, but to make them more dangerous.

We are forgetting about victims and their trauma.

We see our students rising up, don't we? They are demanding that this country protect them and pass gun laws that are common sense where most Americans agree we should be passing.

We need to also talk about how the $9 billion civilian firearms industry is shielded from the scrutiny and accountability that has led other industries to better and safer practices.

I have sat with parents who lost their children to gun violence.

It is the daily occurrence of trauma and heartbreak in a community reeling from a Nation who is unwilling to act.

This has to stop. Enough is enough.

The gun industry uses fear to sell guns, and it believes that mass shootings are great for gun sales.

Your thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need you to stand with us in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

We need to address the incidence of gun violence in this country, not with carceral interventionist solutions, but with a public health approach that is rooted in prevention.

Race, as we have come to understand it, is a fiction, but racism, as we have come to live it, is a fact.

It is always on my mind, is this unrelenting concern about not only their physical safety, but also the emotional toll.

Our national obsession with guns is killing thousands of kids each year.