Madison Cawthorn: “40 yards, 10 rounds, one man, countless lives saved. I speak today to acknowledge a new American hero. Just 2 weeks…”

“40 yards, 10 rounds, one man, countless lives saved. I speak today to acknowledge a new American hero. Just 2 weeks after Indiana passed a constitutional carry provision, one man stood tall in the face of imminent death, protecting his loved ones and his community from evil. Elisjsha Dicken's incredibly quick and heroic actions are not just to be applauded in the media. They ought to be used as a blueprint for American citizens who legally carry nationwide. There is strong evidence that the best defense an American can possess is a sidearm and the know-how to use it. Mr. Speaker, law- abiding citizens use firearms to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times a year, or about 6,850 times a day. This means that, each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives. Moreover, citizens shoot and kill at least twice as many criminals as police do every year, as was the case in Greenwood. The analysis is clear. Law-abiding, gun-toting Americans are the best line of defense against random acts of mass violence. Make no mistake, Congress' gun control lobby would have rather taken the handgun from Elisjsha's hand and replaced it with blood-soaked corpses of many innocents in Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I speak for many Americans when I say we will carry; we will protect ourselves; we will neutralize threats to our safety and security. We don't need you to defend us.…”