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[Pages S3224-S3225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING LaQUITA BROWN
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, LaQuita Brown was 39 years old. She was a
public servant from Chesapeake, VA. She had worked in the public works
department for more than 4 years. She was a right-of-way agent. Her
friends called her ``Ms. Worldwide'' because she loved to travel. She
had
[[Page S3225]]
been all around the world, and her social media was plastered with
pictures of her travels.
Her father, as any father would be, is absolutely heartbroken by her
death.
He said:
She was just everything. She was everything to me. I know
nobody's perfect--but from the time she was born, she had no
faults.
For the Brown family, the grief surrounding LaQuita's death comes on
the heels of LaQuita's brother dying from a hit-and-run driver 3 years
ago. Her father said that LaQuita helped him through the grief. ``She
saved me,'' he said. ``I wouldn't have made it through that [without
her].''
In 100 days into the year, we have had 100 mass shootings. It doesn't
happen anywhere else in the world except in the United States of
America. We can't claim to be helpless, and we can't claim to have no
solutions because, if it only happens here and nowhere else, then there
must be something different happening here. We can learn. We can adapt.
It has now been 100 days since the House of Representatives passed a
universal background checks bill, a universal background checks bill
that is supported by 90 percent of Americans and would have a
significant downward effect on the number of people who are shot in
this country.
We tend to pay attention as a nation and as a body only when
something like Virginia Beach happens, when there is a mass shooting of
an epic scale--when 5 or 10 or 20 people lose their lives at one time.
Yet, since the House passed the universal background checks bill,
10,000 people have been shot and killed in America. That is a stunning
number.
There have been 10,000 people shot and killed in America in just the
100 days since the House passed the universal background checks bill,
but the vast majority of these individuals were not killed in mass
shootings. Most of these were suicides. Most of these were individuals
who had taken their own lives with weapons. Others were accidental
shootings. Many of them were homicides.
The grief and the pain that comes with all of those is no different
than the grief that LaQuita Brown's family is feeling right now. We
should care about every single one of these deaths.
The reason I pegged this to the passage of the background checks bill
is that we know that background checks save lives in States that have
universal background checks, meaning, if you are getting a gun in a
commercial sale, you need to prove that you are not a criminal or that
you are not seriously mentally ill. In the States that have universal
background checks, you have fewer suicides, and you have fewer
homicides.
Connecticut is a perfect example. The research shows that once we
passed our universal background checks requirement--and we did it quite
a number of years ago--we saw a 40-percent reduction in gun homicides
in our State. Similarly, when Missouri went from having a universal
background checks requirement to its not having one, the State saw a
40-percent increase in gun homicides.
Not every single one of these 10,000 deaths was preventable, but many
of them could have been. It is not that we don't know what to do, and
it is not that we don't know what makes this country different; it is
just that we are unwilling to take those steps.
Just this past weekend, 52 people were shot in communities across
this country. There were 10 deaths from gunshot wounds in Chicago
alone. These victims are just as worthy of remembering as the victims
in Virginia Beach or in Sandy Hook or in Parkland.
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