On the recordFebruary 27, 2020
Let me thank the gentlewoman for anchoring this extremely important intervention and Special Order Hour. I wasn't really sure whether or not I would have the strength to stand before you today because we have had yet another mass shooting just in the last day. It seems like this is a daily event. It happened, unfortunately, in my own hometown, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When these things happen, you try to distance yourself from them. You say to yourself, you know, it doesn't have an impact on me personally. But, unfortunately, of the five victims, I knew one of them very well. I have known him since 1992, an immigrant, who was a father, a husband, a grandfather, a wonderful person who left the Soviet Union to come and seek a better life for him and his family, a life of freedom, only to be met with death. Mr. Speaker, it has been a year, today, I believe, that we sent H.R. 8 over to Mitch McConnell's graveyard, while our constituents are planning on putting their loved ones in the grave. It is Sandy Hook. It is Columbine; Newtown; Oak Creek, which is adjacent to my district; Florida, the Pulse mass killing; Parkland; churches, Mother Emanuel Church, the Sikh Temple; movie houses; for God's sake, an elementary school. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. What I have come to learn too quickly is that it will have an impact on you personally, as it happened to me last night. Yesterday, my friend went to work, and today his family is gathering to put him to rest.…
