Gun Control

Floor Speech

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Ms. PLASKETT. Madam Speaker, I have shared before that my father was for many decades a New York City police officer. He had to carry a firearm to protect himself and others, but was acutely aware of individuals on the street, often with guns illegally, who could harm him and those he was tasked to protect.

I do not oppose the right of American citizens to own guns, or intend to rob any constitutional rights. But, we all know that money, hatred, and power have used the Constitution to cover themselves from showing the real intent that they have, the love of greed, desire for power, ignorance, racism, hatred. That is what many are using that constitutional protection to cover themselves from.

Over 50 percent of gun violence is attributable to people who use handguns to commit suicide. The remainder of those deaths and injuries are largely homicide and murder, such as widespread street crime. Then there are mass killings, which have been on an uptick in recent years.

On May 24, in Texas, an 18-year old boy acted as a lone gunman in the second deadliest school shooting on record. Armed with a semiautomatic rifle and 375 rounds of ammunition, he entered Robb Elementary School, opened fire, and laid waste to 19 children and two teachers. The pervasiveness and regularity of such occurrences in the United States has reached epidemic levels.

In 2020, 45,222 Americans died of gun-related injuries, more than any other year on record. That is a 14 percent increase since 2019; a 25 percent increase since 2015; and a 43 percent increase since 2010. In this year alone, almost 19,000 people have already lost their lives; a number, evidenced by the events of the past couple of weeks, are only on the rise.

This weekend alone, over a dozen mass shootings took place: Buffalo, Texas, Philadelphia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, so many more. These mass killings are just the tip of the iceberg with respect to gun violence carnage in America.

Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in this Nation. How many more children will be sacrificed before action is taken? How many more schools will we allow to become battlefields and burial grounds for the sake of the cloak that many are using the Constitution for.

The time for action is now. We know that our gun violence epidemic can be substantially curtailed with thoughtful, reasonable commonsense gun legislation. This includes raising the age, as we have done for so many things, for automatic purchases to 21, and developing and implementing more comprehensive background checks to prevent situations like the Buffalo shooting and the Uvalde massacre.

We need to strengthen gun laws for gun trafficking, which is devastating our country. Areas with strong gun laws cannot curtail the influx of illegal guns trafficked in from States with few restrictions. Places like New York City and Chicago cannot curtail the illegal weapons coming from other places.

With higher unemployment rates, places like my home, the Virgin Islands, has the second highest rate of guns smuggled across its borders and a homicide rate nine times higher than the 50 States.

As well as better establishing and regulating gun storage to prevent minors from acquiring deadly weapons, it is necessary for Members on both sides of this debate to come together to protect the lives of our citizens.

Throw off the cloak that you are using, calling our Constitution to hover and hide what you are really protecting: money, power, hatred.

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