Louisville City Wire

WASHINGTON, DC (April 27, 2023) – On April 28, Congressman Morgan McGarvey (KY-03) joined Dr. Jason Smith from UofL Health, House Democratic Leadership, and his Gun Violence Prevention Task Force colleagues to urge House Republicans to pass common sense gun violence prevention legislation. This week, Congressman McGarvey introduced a House Resolution condemning Louisville’s two mass shootings and led a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives urging them to destroy the gun used in the Old National Bank shooting. 

The resolution honors the memory of the Old National Bank and Chickasaw Park mass shooting victims, recognizes the first responders and medical professionals who responded to the shootings, and calls for action to combat the gun violence epidemic across the country. Co-sponsors include Reps. Becca Balint, Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D., Brendan Boyle, Emanuel Cleaver II, Jasmine Crockett, Jason Crow, Mark DeSaulnier, Adriano Espaillat, Robert Garcia, Josh Gottheimer, Al Green, Glenn Ivey, Sara Jacobs, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Greg Landsman, John Larson, Susie Lee, Betty McCollum, Grace Meng, Kevin Mullin, Joe Neguse, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Patrick Ryan, Hillary Scholten, Haley Stevens, Eric Swalwell, Jill Tokuda, and Nikema Williams.

Below are Congressman McGarvey’s remarks at the Gun Violence Prevention press conference. To view the full press conference, click here. 

Thank you, Leader Jeffries and Chairman Thompson. Thank you both sincerely for your amazing and bold leadership in the fight against America’s epidemic of gun violence.

Seventeen days ago, I was here in Washington, D.C. with my family when I learned that there’d been a mass shooting, this time at Old National Bank in Louisville — a catastrophic event that took 5 lives, Juliana Farmer, Deana Eckert, Jim Tutt, Josh Barrick, and my good friend Tommy Elliott, and injured 8 others, including a young police officer Nick Wilt who’s still fighting for his life in a hospital bed after taking a round from an AR-15 to the head. 

As I was leaving, I told my oldest daughter, Clara, I had to go home because there’d been a mass shooting. All of the color drained from her face. She looked up at me and said, “Oh no, which school was it?” Then, the next day, when my wife was dropping our kids off at elementary school, Clara told her, “Hey Mommy, please be safe at work today.”

Breaks your heart. It’s devastating. As if the senseless, constant loss of life day after day after day after day weren’t enough, knowing that our kids are living with this very real fear is awful.

But of course they’re afraid. Why wouldn’t they be afraid? Gun violence is the number one cause of death for children in this country. Think about that. More kids die from gunshots than anything else in this country — and what do we get? Thoughts and prayers, excuses and political posturing that ensure a troubled individual with destructive thoughts can go and buy a weapon of war in a moment’s notice.

This morning, we learned that the shooter at Old National Bank was seeing a psychiatrist for suicidal ideation, and walked in and within 40 minutes, had purchased an AR-15 and the ammunition to go with it. Six days later, it took him less than four minutes for him to shoot and kill five of his coworkers, injure seven others, and for the police to come and he fired upon them. The shooter’s parents spoke out, and they said we’re doing nothing and it’s not working. The victims’ families have said that we’re doing nothing and it’s not working. 

Dr. Jason Smith, Chief Medical Officer and Trauma Surgeon who was on call that day in Louisville, has said that we’re doing nothing and it’s not working. 

We must do something. That’s why Democrats are here asking for help, it’s why this week, I’ve been approaching my colleagues in the Republican Caucus, on the floor of the House, asking them where they can meet us, where we can work on this legislation. 

I’ll be honest — I haven’t gotten anywhere yet. But I’m not giving up. Over the coming weeks, my friends and colleagues on the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force and I will continue to appeal to our colleagues across the aisle, one-on-one, in the hopes of turning empty thoughts and prayers into meaningful action and policy. 

This is an epidemic of our own making, and that means we have the power to stop it. The solutions aren’t complicated. We can ban assault weapons; mandate waiting periods, pass red flag laws, background checks, storage requirements; and institute magazine limits.

We know these solutions would work, they’ve worked in every other developed nation on earth. All that’s lacking is the political courage. It’s time we put kids over guns, that we put public safety over guns, that we put people’s lives over guns.

We don’t have to live like this. And we don’t have to die like this. Gun violence is a choice in this country, and it’s time for us to make a new one.

Now, I have the honor of introducing a true local hero in my community. Dr. Jason Smith, who faces the trauma of gun violence every day, not just on the days when there are mass shootings, and I’m glad he could join us today.

Original source can be found here