February 27, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 36 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H2241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  (Ms. WEXTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WEXTON. Mr. Speaker, several years ago, I had a conversation with 
one of my constituents that I think about often.
  She told me about when she sent her 5-year-old son off to his first 
week of kindergarten in the Loudoun County Public Schools. He came home 
from school one day, and he told her: Mommy, we had an emergency drill 
today. My place to hide is behind the backpacks.
  Like a backpack is going to stop a round from an AR-15.
  And she decided right then and there that we need to do better for 
our kids and that she needed to do something. Her way of doing 
something was to start the Loudoun chapter of Moms Demand Action.
  Now she and millions more like her have sent us here to do something 
about gun violence.
  We may not be able to stop every school shooting, every act of gun 
violence, but shouldn't we at least try to stop some? Because if we 
won't do that we shouldn't be here.
  Today, for the first time in decades, the United States Congress will 
vote on meaningful gun violence prevention legislation. We will vote on 
and pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, and I 
will proudly vote ``yes'' because these checks will save lives.

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