Nydia M. Velazquez: “Americans everywhere are tired of reading headlines about mass shootings. What happened in Orlando in June broke all our…”

“Americans everywhere are tired of reading headlines about mass shootings. What happened in Orlando in June broke all our hearts, and we have felt similar outrage about the shooting in Houston this week. But while incidents like this command headlines, we forget just how frequent shootings have become. In New York City, already this year, there have been 897 shooting victims. According to Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings daily across the United States, there have been 10,717 gun-related deaths this year and more than 22,000 injuries, and it is only September. There are steps this Congress could take to help stem this violence. Will any one solution stop gun violence completely? Of course not. There are anywhere from 270 million to 310 million guns in the United States, close to one firearm for every man, woman and child. So we will not solve this problem overnight. But there are some steps we could take, steps that Republicans continue blocking. First, it makes no sense that if you cannot legally get on an airplane, you can still purchase a firearm. If you are prohibited from flying, you shouldn't be buying a gun. That is just common sense. Now, some on the other side of the aisle like to drag up an incident or two where someone was incorrectly placed on the no-fly list. If that is the case, I will say, let's also fix the no-fly list. But we cannot use this as an excuse to do nothing.…”