Post by bot on Jun 26, 2016 16:43:49 GMT -5
Hoyer: Our People Expect Us to Stand
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the Floor of the House of Representatives this evening during a sit-in staged by House Democrats to demand a vote on legislation to address gun violence. House Republicans gaveled out the proceedings more than eight hours previously, but Democrats held the Floor. Below is a transcript of his remarks, which were not broadcast because House Republicans recessed the House:
“I want to place this in context for you and for all of our constituents. The average number of gun deaths in America is 32,964.
“[Rep.] Robin Kelly earlier this week stood in our caucus and said, ‘you know, we’ll have a moment of silence for the 49 who died in Orlando, and a moment of silence for others where numbers have died,’ she says. ‘But in my city, in our country, we have individuals die, we have two, we have three, we have four. Not all at the same time, but equally as important.’
“‘In a country that focuses on individuals,’ she says ‘we ought to recognize the worth of every single life.’ 32, 964, my friends if we had risen and given each one of those one-minute of silence, it would have taken us 91 and a half days at six hours every session. Ninety-one days.
“We have taken just a short time on this day to speak for all of those who lost their lives. For all of those, those of you may have heard me speak earlier today, our chaplain started his prayer ‘thank you Lord for this day.’ We speak for all those who’s days were taken away from them. We speak for the families who will grieve every day. And we speak today for over 250 million Americans, 80% of America says pass these bills.
“Our friends in the NRA say people kill people, not guns. This debate is about making sure that those people who shouldn’t have guns don’t get them. That is why we are on this Floor to say if we determine you are too dangerous to fly, then you are too dangerous to have a gun. And we sit and stand on this Floor to say we want to make sure that the vetting process is through so that our neighbors, our friends and our families can have some sense of security in their church, in their grocery store, in their theater, in their neighborhood, and in their ‘Congress on the Corner’ as Gabby Giffords reminded us.
“I talk to my friend the Majority Leader today who came over and said how can we stop this. And I said to him, ‘put those two bills on the Floor and let America know where it’s Members stand on making their country safer; where their Members stand on making sure that terrorists don’t have guns; [and] on making sure that when we vet somebody that it’s a thorough vetting so that we know that that person who went to Charleston’s church, Mother Emanuel Church, who should not have been able to buy a gun, but we did not get sufficient time for the check. That’s all we stand here for.
“And our people expect us to stand. As they were benefited and blessed by [Rep.] John Lewis and all those who sat on a bus knowing full well the danger that would be on the other side at the station. For those who sat along with [Rep.] Jim Clyburn on a stool in a cafeteria counter just simply asking to be fed. And what they received in return was the taunts and the physical abuse for simply wanting to eat.
“And [Rep.] John Lewis and so many of us have walked across the Edmund Pettis bridge with [Rep.] John Lewis, I know [Leader] Nancy [Pelosi] and [Rep.] Jim [Clyburn] and I and so many of you have walked across that bridge for the simple request to register to vote in the greatest democracy on the face of the earth.
“And we stand here saying, ‘[Speaker] Paul Ryan give us the right to vote on these two bills. Help make America safer and let’s do it now.’”