Political Quotes

“2 years ago I came to the floor to fight for a ban on assault weapons. At that time, I told the story of Michelle Cutner, a 7-year-old from Philadelphia. It was the next to the last day of school and Michelle's mother picked her up at the Chester Elementary School. As she stopped at a corner store to buy chips, Jerome Whitaker, a 15-year-old who was quarreling with a friend, took out a TEC-9 and started shooting. One of the bullets hit Michelle and killed her. The carnage continues in Philadelphia. Four months ago, three young friends sitting in a minivan were riddled with 40 rounds of gunfire from a semiautomatic rifle while sitting in a van. One of the victims, Joseph Gill, was 16 years old. Mr. Speaker, how many more little girls like Michelle have to die from the bullet of a TEC-9? How many more young men will die in a hail of bullets? How many more police officers will be gunned down because bulletproof vests cannot resist the spray of AK-47's or Uzi's? I urge my colleagues to join me on behalf of kids like Michelle and Joseph, and so many others like them, and vote against this assault on the assault weapons ban.”