Sheila Jackson Lee: “Let me take this opportunity to do one or two things. First, I acknowledge my colleague, Congresswoman Slotkin and her…”

“Let me take this opportunity to do one or two things. First, I acknowledge my colleague, Congresswoman Slotkin and her district, to offer to her and the people of Michigan my deepest concern and sympathy for the loss of those precious children. No parent should ever expect to send their child to school and there would be a loss of life. Murdered. And for too long we have had a roll call of children being murdered. Students at Columbine High School, those college students at Virginia Tech, high school students at Parkland, high school students at Santa Fe, and of course, in Connecticut, little babies. It brought a President to tears. Tonight, my message is sometimes the Federal Government has to step in. For example, as it relates to this tragedy of gun violence, we are long overdue for dealing with the appropriate reaction. Many of us have discussed legislation that I had, some 20-plus years ago in Texas, that sometimes--although I am a champion of parents, I am one--I want to see parents front and center in their children's education, PTO meetings, I know where to go to get action parents. When a little one--and I will say a little one--gets a gun from a parent that bought the gun a few days ago and winds up taking the lives of three precious little ones and others now fighting for their lives in hospitals, I would make the argument that something has to be done. Something has to be done and the Federal Government needs to step in in a tragedy like this.…”