Political Quotes

“I rise to commemorate the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims which occurs in just a few days on September 25. In 2007, the Congress passed the resolution designating the National Day of Remembrance and affirming two central truths. First, the murder of a loved one is an exceptionally difficult and devastating experience for that family, and, second, that support services are very important in helping victims' friends and families as they cope with the grief and loss. Today in Washington we have family members who can attest to the devastation of losing a loved one. They are mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and other parts of the family, each of whom have lost a loved one to violence. They have come together to form, in this case, a Philadelphia-based violence prevention group called Mothers In Charge. I cannot imagine the pain they suffer, but the sad truth is, their ranks grow every day in our country, where about 16,000 people are murdered each year, including over 600 just in Pennsylvania, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Around two-thirds of these murders are committed with firearms. These families know all the statistics, but the loved ones they lost aren't statistics, they are people and members of their family, and we need to remember that. I came to the floor last week to talk about a particularly violent day in 1 city, Philadelphia, PA, in which 10 people were shot in 1 day and 5 were killed.…”