{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sewell.house.gov/2024/9/rep-sewell-honors-the-victims-of-birmingham-s-five-points-south-shooting-on-the-house-floor-calls-for-action-on-gun-violence", "Rep. Sewell Recognizes the Victims of Birmingham\u2019s Five Points South Shooting on the House Floor, Calls for Action on Gun Violence", "2024-09-24", "2024", "2024-09", "Democrat", "House", "AL", "Terri A. Sewell", "S001185", "sewell.house.gov", "sewell", "https://sewell.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) spoke on the House Floor to honor the victims of Saturday night\u2019s mass shooting in Birmingham\u2019s Five Points South. She called on her colleagues in Congress to pass common sense gun safety measures, including universal background checks, red flag laws, and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. She also called on state officials to reverse the state\u2019s 2022 permitless carry law. This morning, Sewell was briefed by the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Steven Dettelbach, regarding the federal response to the shooting.\n\nWatch it on YouTube here.\n\nRep. Sewell: Mister Speaker, it is with great sadness that I rise to honor the victims of the horrific mass shooting that rattled the Birmingham community over the weekend.\n\nOn Saturday night, just after 11:00 p.m., twenty-one people were shot in Birmingham\u2019s Five Points South entertainment district. Four of them tragically lost their lives.\n\nLet me be clear. This, indeed, is a senseless violence and unacceptable and it must stop.\n\nOur thoughts are with the families as they endure this unimaginable loss. Nothing compares to the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence. We stand with them in this time of great sadness, and we pray for a speedy recovery for those that were injured.\n\nI join in expressing my gratitude to the police officers and first responders, as well as our county, state, and federal partners, for their quick response.\n\nMy staff and I have been closely monitoring the situation, and we stand ready to assist the City of Birmingham in any way that we can.\n\nWhile this horrific tragedy has focused the eyes of the nation on Birmingham, Alabama, the surge of gun violence is a reality that far too many of my constituents endure every day.\n\nOur communities are crying out for change, and we as elected officials owe it to them to do all that we can\u2014at every level of government\u2014to keep them safe.\n\nAgain, I want to be clear. This senseless violence is unacceptable and it must stop.\n\nThat means bringing more resources to community organizations fighting to break the cycle of violence. It means teaching our children about alternatives to gun violence. And yes, it means passing common sense measures to keep weapons off the streets of America.\n\nMister Speaker, our thoughts and prayers are important. They are needed. But they will not bring back the lives of those lost to gun violence, nor will they prevent such tragedies from happening again.\n\nThe members of this body cannot continue to sit by as family after family, community after community are torn apart. It is time for Congress to finally pass universal background checks, red flag laws, and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.\n\nIt is also time for state officials in the State of Alabama to reverse the permitless carry law, which has allowed the unchecked proliferation of guns on our streets.\n\nOnly by taking meaningful action can we stem this needless loss of life.\n\nI ask my colleagues to keep the entire Birmingham community in your prayers, and I hope that we can come together and turn this pain into purpose and do something about it.\n\nThanks, and I yield back.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://sewell.house.gov/2024/9/rep-sewell-honors-the-victims-of-birmingham-s-five-points-south-shooting-on-the-house-floor-calls-for-action-on-gun-violence"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6838419940322638, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}