Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, last year more than 13,000 Americans lost their lives because of a gun. More than 3,300 children were killed or injured. As the President said yesterday, the question of whether we address gun violence is really a question about who we are and what kind of country we want to live in. Do we want to be a country in which we have a mass shooting nearly every single day of the year? Do we want to be a country in which children in a school have to practice hiding silently under their desks or in a closet in order to avoid an active shooter? Do we want to be a country in which the National Rifle Association buys influence and drowns out the voices of concerned citizens? Do we want to be a country in which all Congress does after a mass shooting is hold another moment of silence instead of addressing the problem? That is the country we live in today, a country in which gun violence threatens lives every day, a country in which we are growing accustomed to atrocities that just don't happen as often in other developed countries. Mr. Speaker, we can do better. The President has done his job. Now it is time for Congress to do its job. Let's pass universal background checks. Let's do more to keep guns from criminals and from those with serious mental illness, such that possessing a gun would pose a threat to themselves or others. Let's get military-style assault weapons out of our communities. Let's do better. ____________________”