On the recordJanuary 12, 2023
Let me, first of all, acknowledge Damar Hamlin for his courage and his fight to survive. Welcome home as he is discharged from a Buffalo hospital so that he can recover. That is the kind of strength that represents America, and though I am not from Buffalo, let me salute the Buffalo Bills. I rise today, Madam Speaker, to speak about the child and to ask America: How does a 6-year-old shoot a teacher? From the research from the University of Pennsylvania, the answer is that children become shooters because they have access to guns. So in my congressional year 2023, I am going to demand that this Congress claims this as the Year of the Child. As a founder of the Congressional Children's Caucus, I am going to call upon my Democrat and Republican colleagues to join this caucus to be able to establish the premise that no child should go to bed hungry; no child should be without housing or good education; and no child should get off a school bus and be shot as two children were in Washington, D.C. Stop the gun violence. Let this be the Year of the Child. Let us lift up our children so they can be healthy adults. ____________________
