On the recordJuly 22, 2014
My community has experienced over the last couple of weeks senseless horrific violence done with guns, wrapped and intertwined with domestic violence. First, I offer my sympathy to Cassidy Stay, who lost six members of her family at the hands of a gun and an individual who was coming to do harm to her aunt; and then to the family of Candace Williams, whose three children--7-year-old Neira, 1-year-old Paris, and 6-year-old Torian--watched their mother gunned down in her bedroom with baby Paris, 1-year old, sleeping alongside her mother; and of course, the Stay family--Katie and Stephen, Bryan, Emily, Rebecca, and Zach--who lost their lives at the hand of a violent individual who was, as I said, coming to do harm to his own ex-wife. It is time to raise the understanding of domestic violence. Today, at a press conference in Houston, we announced the Candace Way Out, so that women all over America would be able to know there are places to go. I intend, Madam Speaker, to introduce legislation to enhance the penalty for anyone involved in domestic violence that uses a gun that results in the death of that loved one. Madam Speaker, violence, guns, and domestic violence must end. Madam Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise to speak to a tragedy resulting from another senseless act of domestic violence in my congressional district.…
