Jasmine Crockett: “I rise on behalf of the 19 children and 2 teachers murdered in Uvalde, Texas, 1 year ago today. One excruciating year…”

“I rise on behalf of the 19 children and 2 teachers murdered in Uvalde, Texas, 1 year ago today. One excruciating year has passed for the families of those we lost at Robb Elementary that day. A year of empty childhood bedrooms and vacant desks where a child should be. One full year, and what do we have to show for it? What has this legislative body done to answer the pain of these parents with policy? I ask myself this: Have we passed any measures on this floor that will stop the next Uvalde? The answer to that is an obvious no, we have not, because in the year since the second worst school shooting in American history, there has been 39 more. My district is about 355 miles north of Uvalde, but the horror of that day haunts every Texan as if it happened right next door; maybe that is because it is happening next door, in a wave of gun violence that has touched every corner of Texas, in every public space we once saw as safe. Just this month, my home of north Texas has grieved the deaths of eight Texans in a hateful act of violence at a shopping mall. That was the ninth mass shooting in Texas in 14 years. Fourteen years that lawmakers in Texas and Washington have used to loosen gun regulations. Mr. Speaker, I will tell you something: As a Texan and as an American, I am tired. I am tired of being traumatized. Texas is tired of the terror. It is time to do our jobs and legislate instead of pontificate.…”