Political Quotes

“Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Speaker, I rise to take my first opportunity to address my colleagues from the House floor, to participate in a discussion on an issue that I find very troubling, at a crisis point for our Nation. But first let me thank our chairwoman, Marcia Fudge, for her outstanding leadership and for organizing the Special Order hour to address the issue of the senseless violence facing our Nation. Our country, more than ever, is facing a culture of violence. Unfortunately, we are now living in a society where mass killings have gone from being an extremely rare occurrence to a common occurrence. According to Harvard Health Policy Review, each year approximately 30,000 people in the United States die as a result of gunfire, and about 80,000 people are wounded. We are faced with living in a culture where, now, more than 6.6 million violent crimes--murder, rape, assault, and robbery--are committed each year. {time} 2000 We are living in a culture of violence where our children see 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence in media and in their communities at a very early age. Colleagues, these statistics are too many, and it is time for action now. This problem must be fixed. We must remember, when we talk about rights, children have a right to be safe. So I applaud President Obama and Vice President Biden for proactively taking the necessary steps to address this critical issue.…”