WATCH: Congresswoman Bush Joins House Oversight Democrats Roundtable on the Long-Term Toll of Gun Violence on Schools and Youth
Click here to watch the video
Washington D.C. (Sept. 25, 2024) - On Monday, September 23, at 4:00 p.m. ET, Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01) joined Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (FL-10), Congressman Jared Moskowitz (FL-23), and other Democratic Committee Members for a roundtable titled “The Real Facts of Life: The Long-Term Effects of Gun Violence on Young People, Schools and their Communities, Part II,” to examine the epidemic of gun violence and its long-term consequences for children, teenagers, and their communities with a panel of school leaders, advocates, and gun violence experts.
A copy of Congresswoman Bush’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below.
***
Opening Statement
Congresswoman Cori Bush
Committee on Oversight and Accountability on “ The Long-Term Effects of Gun Violence on Schools, Young People and their Communities.”
September 23, 2024
Thank you Ranking Member Raskin and Representatives Frost and Moskowitz for convening this important roundtable discussion. Thank you to our panelists who have dedicated their time to addressing the gun violence crisis in our communities.
It’s a shame we are not having a full-committee hearing on this topic, and that our GOP colleagues continue to put their heads in the sand when it comes to enacting policies that will save lives. And, I'm sitting over here trembling. I'm just sitting here as you all were speaking, just thinking about how we get to a certain point when our children, once they're pretty much out of pull ups, then we're ready to teach them how to ride a bike. And, I'm sitting over here trembling like I'm trembling. Because I'm just sitting here as as you all were speaking, just thinking about how, you know, we get to a certain point when our children, you know, hit, you know, once they're, pretty much out of pull ups, then we're ready to teach them how to ride a bike- and we're looking at bike safety. We're so careful about making sure those training wheels are on right. We're running behind them and making sure they have their helmet, and pads on their elbows and knees and everything. Then it's time to teach them how to cross the street. And we're so careful about crossing the street because we want to protect these kids. But then when it comes to guns, then it's like- it's free. Do what you will. Let social media teach you about guns.
And I am trembling because it matters who we allow in these seats. As you spoke to, Dr. Sakran and what you said Rep. Stansbury. I am standing up here for my community, representing St. Louis.
St. Louis and I are here today to say every school shooting is a heartbreaking policy failure. No student should have to go to school in fear. No parent should have to watch their child walk into the school doors and worry that they won't walk out. No educator should ever have to risk their lives or be forced to learn how to use a gun. Yet, this constant trauma and devastation is the enduring reality of schools all across our country.
And I remember being a girl from the Midwest. I remember tornado drills as a child. I remember it was serious business tornado drills, fire drills. I didn't care too much about fire drills, I just walked through the motions. I never thought there'd be a fire. I understood as a child that this was just us learning what to do. But the tornado drill was different because it was physical, because you had to get down on the floor, you had to put your hands over your head. It helped you to see that something could happen to my body. Stay away from the windows, you have to be in a particular place. And all of these things.
But now we have the kids who are killing each other accidentally, and it's one after the other. And we just push it to the side, social media videos over and over, and we just see the next and we push it to the side. We're being desensitized to it. Missouri has the fifth highest gun death rate in the United States, and as a survivor of gun violence, myself representing Missouri's first, this issue hits so close to home. Threats of school shootings continue to be on the rise across the country, including in my district. There have been 20 threats of gun violence reported against schools in St. Louis over the last two weeks alone.
Our community is still reeling from a 2022 shooting at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, a predominantly Black school. And just last week, a person with a loaded gun was arrested in the parking lot of another school in my district. After posting on social media that he was going to go there and cause harm. Had that day ended differently, it could have been another CVPA, another Appalachia, another Parkland, another Robb Elementary and the list goes on.
We understand that students exposed to gun violence report increased anxiety and fear, depression and trauma, reduced academic performance, and behavioral issues. But go to school and learn. And then the behavioral issues, these issues often disproportionately harm Black and brown and marginalized students.
Question: So, Dr. Sakran, I'd like to talk to you about the long term impact of gun violence on our historically excluded students. How do the mental health and academic impacts of gun violence in our schools, specifically affect black and Brown students, who may already face additional stressors?
Dr. Sakran: Yeah. Well, thank you very much for that question. And it's and it's one that is very real because even if for a second. Right, you just look at the entire country, we know that there is a significant lack of access when it comes to mental health and behavioral services, when it comes to just even the long term ability for us to treat some of the disabilities and the injuries that we are seeing. Now imagine, you talk about marginalized, vulnerable populations like brown and Black communities, and you just have to increase that by tenfold and even greater in some circumstances. Our infrastructure is not equipped where we're able to provide the type of resources, right. And the type of care that's needed, not just to care for people that are injured and lucky enough to survive, but also people that are injured and we don't want them to come back in with another injury, which we know in some communities, like Baltimore, 40% will be back within five years. And so there is a significant gap that exists. And this is part of what, you know, I think we've been talking about all afternoon is how do we, number one, capture the right data when people are leaving the hospital? How do we ensure, right, that we're approaching this in a multifaceted way so that we can provide access to mental health therapists, right, to folks that are needing, you know, other types of treatment, whether it's surgeries, prescriptions. I mean, the list just continues to go on. And when you specifically focus on brown and black communities, it's just absolutely devastating. And it's disproportionate. And that's very clear. And what we've seen.
Thank you for that. And as a nurse myself who has worked, in surgical units, ICU, you know, it would always be a bad day when I would pull up in front of the hospital and blood is in the street. Yeah. You know, toss the body out of the car and just left the body there and people would drive off.
Dr. Sakran: And can I just add, that's why in your own district, you know, people like LJ punch, that are doing that work at the brick, right? That type of work doesn't exist across the country. Imagine if you had the brick exponentially put in cities across America where they are getting these wraparound services. This often doesn't get highlighted, and that's why we're here today
Thank you for bringing up Dr. Punch doing amazing work. We were able to get Dr. Punch funded through Community Project Funding. Thank you for that.
Question: Mr. Brown, can you speak to the importance of taking a public health approach to the gun violence epidemic?
Mr. Brown: Well, if I speak to that, everybody here will go to sleep because I won’t know what the heaven I’m talking about. But I do want to emphasize my gratitude and appreciation for you taking the positions that you've taken. We met at the 2022 March for Our Lives rally. And you telling your story about being a gun violence survivor yourself was inspiring. And the reason why is, I come from communities like this one here in DC, which we're in a safe place right now, safe for some. But where I grew up, it wasn't that way. And where I teach, it isn't that way. And where I live, it isn't that way. So I'm saying thank you, because you don't have to keep waking up to do this work. And fighting to do this work. Some people can come to work and go home and that be their piece, their sort of safety, so to say. And some others have to fight to get to work and then fight to get home and then fight at work and then fight to get to work and then fight to get home and then fight at work and so on. So I'm saying thank you to you, and I hope that all my students see this, they understand that there are people like you out there who are in these seats, and people like these families who love them and care about them, like Ranking Member Raskin, who love them and care about them and want to see new things for our students. I do know that taking a public health approach would make gun violence a more central piece of the conversation, and that does matter. I am underwhelmed, because I'm afraid of America's ability to effectively solve the problem, even when it does raise it as a public health concern. Where has America shown its ability to solve these types of problems ever? I don't know, maybe there's data that says yes to that, but I don't know. So, my challenge is for us to, I suppose, take from some of those sort of ingredients that exist within us in terms of our resilience and our grit, our ability to figure things out and take that same approach to this gun violence issue.
Thank you. And thank you for that. We have to show up. And those of us that have the experience, we need to- if we can- bring that to the table. So thank you for your work on this. And I do remember that it was really, really tough. But I remember thinking, you know, as many bodies as I've seen in the street, as many times as a gun has been pointed at me. And as a survivor, you know, being able to still be here after suffering, at the hands of a very abusive partner, who almost took my life with the gun.
You know, we shouldn’t have to dig through our trauma, as Representative Ayanna Pressley says, to be able to help people. But for those of us that need to, we do that work. So thank you as well.
Last year, alongside my Democratic colleagues, We re-introduced the People’s Response Act, this is a bill that establishes an inclusive, holistic, and health-centered approach to public safety by creating a public safety division within the United States Department of Human Health and Services, it invests in violence interrupters and behavioral health personnel, and trauma-informed care in both our schools and communities.
Our students, educators, and communities shouldn't have to live like this. While our students live in fear of being murdered at their desks, Republicans wear assault rifle pins and continue to guzzle campaign contributions from the gun lobby.
The GOP’s fanatical obsession with guns is getting people killed all across our country—and its Black and brown communities like St. Louis that disproportionately bear the harm of this policy violence.
Lastly, just to put it on the record, we all know that Democrats have introduced lifesaving gun violence prevention solutions, just as Rep Stansbury said, it's on the table.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: How many people have to die before my GOP colleagues value our student’s lives over their campaign coffers and take action?
I yield back.