Inaction is Not An Option

Floor Speech

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Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, with over 30 Americans killed by a gun every single day, for far too long I have been saying that inaction is not an option. Yet, in my 3-plus years in Congress, House Republicans have refused to do anything on gun violence. This week's lackluster, Beltway, big-gun-lobby-written bill is the only gun vote this Congress has had.

Why is it that when our country was facing a horrific opioid epidemic, we empowered our local, State, and Federal governments with the resources necessary to combat this issue? And why is it that when a terrorist boarded a plane with a bomb in his shoe, we passed legislation that makes passengers remove their shoes when they go through airport security? Yet, after countless mass shootings and daily violence in the streets of Chicago, Newark, and Baltimore, we do nothing.

Many of us here today are still rightfully discussing the horrible 49 deaths in Orlando a few weeks ago, but I would like to share two other statistics with you about gun violence since Orlando.

During our honorable colleague, Senator Chris Murphy's 15-hour filibuster, 48 people in America were shot. Forty-eight people in 15 hours. In Chicago, the last month has seen 79 people lose their lives to gun violence. Seventy-nine lost souls:

Fabian Lavinder; Kevin Montell Atkins, Jr.; Victor Felix; Marshawn Clinkscale; Kaysar Chako; Joseph Harden; Jamaal Bellamy; Christian Bandemer; Daniel Alcantara; Anthony Howard; Darnell Hardeman; William Palmer; Kori O. Sellers; Dontay Murray, Jr.; Donkel Riley; Anreco Nichols; Sami Salaymeh; Victor Sanders; Lewis Johnson; Lanarris Webster; Dawson Stephan; Paul Webster; Terry Bates, Jr.; Jeremy Ray; Fatimah Muhammed; Travell Montgomery; Timothy Boyd; Christopher Fields; Javil Nunn; Antwon Brooks; Dwayne Triplett; Jordan Liggins; Davion Barron; Adrian Watson; Antoine Randle; Steven Edwards; William Sandifer; Antonio Perkins; Jeremy Rodgers; Denzel Thornton; Angelo Davis; Demetrius Archer; Marshaun Jackson; Victor Robinson; Melvin Cook; Charles Wiley; Latrell McMahon; Eric Knox; Eric Smith; Margaret Shanahan; Alejandro Rosas; Michael A. Brown; Carlton Hall; Salvador Suarez; Otis Richmond; Eugene Singleton; Ramal Hicks; Amari Catchings; Stanley Boston; Jessica Hampton; Eric Burgin; Trevell Parker; Jeremy Clark; Brandon Nolls; Reginald Turner; Trayvon Wilson; Wondale Collier; Selton Ellis; Frederick Johnson; Lonnie King; Kentrail McCray; Alfondia Kelly; Matusalem Gutierrez; Darrell Guy, Jr.; Marshawn Hilson; Chanda Foreman; Robert Vaughn; Kenneth Whitaker; Hector Badillo, Jr.; and Willie Pittman.

We were led during our sit-in 2 weeks ago by an icon, Congressman John Lewis, and I was very, very, very proud to participate and would do it again. He is fond of referencing a dream he shared with his mentor, a mentor of many of us, Dr. King, the dream of the Beloved Community, a place where people of all races, creeds, religions, and gender identification can live together in peace.

Certainly there is no place for assault rifles in the Beloved Community. There is no place for gun rights for terrorists in the Beloved Community. There is no place for gun rights for criminals and the dangerously mentally ill in the Beloved Community. In the Beloved Community, no child has to live a life where going to the park risks them from being mowed down by a stray bullet.

I will keep fighting and speaking out until we honor these victims' lives with action, not with moments of silence.

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