Congressman Cicilline Tells Colleagues: Do Your Job. Pass Gun Safety Legislation

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, ahead of the vote on H.R. 7910, Protecting Our Kids Act, Congressman David Cicilline urged all his colleagues to support the legislation, demanding that they “do your job” by passing gun safety legislation to protect Americans.

A transcript of the Congressman’s remarks is below.

Madam Speaker,

Almost six years ago, I sat down right here on this floor with the late, great John Lewis and so many colleagues to protest the Republicans’ unwillingness to take up gun safety legislation after the Orlando shooting at the Pulse nightclub.

We promised to the American people that if we were given the majority, we would deliver on gun
safety legislation.

Last year, we passed bills for expanded criminal background checks and to close the Charleston Loophole to ensure criminals can’t buy firearms.

And today, we will pass groundbreaking legislation to address gun violence and the epidemic of gun violence in our country.

Gun violence is the crisis of this generation. There isn’t a person or community in this country that isn’t affected by gun violence. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, in a city or a suburb, young or old. We are all a text message away from this happening to anyone of us.

In the last 159 days alone, we’ve had more than 240 mass shootings in this country, almost 19,000 dead from guns, and 27 school shootings. Children killed in Uvalde, Parkland, Sandy Hook, and many more places across the country.

Enough is enough. It’s time to do something.

Every minute we wait, every minute we fail to act, we sentence more Americans and more children
to death by guns in this country.

The Protect[ing] Our Kids Act is a smart, common sense package that will save lives. I urge my colleagues to take this first step with us, help reduce gun violence in this country, protect your constituents from the gun violence that is ravaging communities all across America.

And we can’t stop here. This is a great bill. There’s a lot more work to be done to make certain that kids and all the members of our community are safe.

But have the courage to stand up – actually, it doesn’t take a lot of courage. Do your job. Protect your constituents from these horrific, horrific acts of gun violence.

Vote yes on this legislation.

And with that, Madam Speaker, I yield back.