{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-remarks-at-newtown-vigil-to-end-gun-violence", "Pelosi Remarks at Newtown Vigil to End Gun Violence", "2016-12-12", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "CA", "Nancy Pelosi", "P000197", "pelosi.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Contact: Drew Hammill/Caroline Behringer, 202-226-7616\nSan Francisco \u2013 Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today at the Newtown Vigil to End Gun Violence at St. Luke\u2019s Episcopal Church.\u00a0 Below are the Leader\u2019s remarks:\n\u201cGood morning, everyone.\u00a0 Thank you, Reverend Corsello for your hospitality and your inspiration to all of us.\u00a0 After listening to Clare and to Damien, it\u2019s hard to be composed.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to grasp the strength that Clare had telling us about Camilo.\u00a0\n\u201cWe heard you before \u2013 you and Damien at other events that we had.\u00a0 When we followed up on the action on the Floor of the House \u2013 it was a drumbeat across America.\u00a0 Clare inspired us \u2013 she inspired me with her words, her story, her strength.\u00a0 She turned her grief into something better for our country.\u00a0\n\u201cDamien told us that he had been on \u2018both sides of the gun.\u2019\u00a0 Do you remember that?\u00a0 He used that phrase.\u00a0 And he just had the crowd going in a way \u2013 reaching folks that needed to be reached on all of this.\u00a0 So, Damien, you\u2019re a star.\u00a0 We brag about you all the time.\u00a0 Clare, I can\u2019t even imagine the strength.\u00a0 So sad for your family \u2013 as a mother and a grandmother, I can\u2019t even \u2013 I just think, all of you, God gave you special strength.\u00a0\n\u201cI\u2019m here with my daughter Christine, who has been on this issue for a long time.\u00a0 This is a family affair.\n\u201cI listened to what has been said \u2013 the beautiful words of Catherine.\u00a0 She just put it all in perspective.\u00a0 And I just thought maybe I just take my comments to a little bit of a different place.\u00a0\n\u201cThat is to say: we had our Sit-In \u2013 the Speaker said, \u2018This is a political stunt on the part of Nancy Pelosi.\u2019\u00a0 John Lewis was our inspiration, and by the way, John Lewis said, \u2018That\u2019s what they said \u2013 they called it a political stunt when we walked across the bridge [in Selma].\u2019\u00a0 That didn\u2019t fly there.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t fly.\n\u201cAnd as we look at the election, 80 percent of the public supports background checks, and yet, that is not reflected in their vote.\u00a0 And we just have to be more aware of the fact that there are great forces online.\u00a0 You described them \u2013 Claire did \u2013 very well.\u00a0\n\u201cFrom watching what happened since this last election, to see how the gun lobby beyond the NRA \u2013 they too, but beyond them \u2013 how they targeted people very specifically, carving off the hunters with a different message.\u00a0 First, the Second Amendment \u2013 those folks and the rest.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s a very sophisticated, money-oriented operation.\n\u201cWhen President Kennedy was assassinated \u2013 and then later, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King \u2013 President Lyndon Johnson sent a bill to the Congress.\u00a0 This is now how many years ago?\u00a0 The 1960s \u2013 [he] sent a bill to the Congress, and he said to his supporters there, \u2018We must act swiftly because it will be 10 days or two weeks before the NRA and the gun lobby take over the Congress.\u2019\u00a0 Even then, with the assassination of a President and Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, he knew the high profile nature of that.\u00a0 And he got a bill, but it wasn\u2019t the bill that he wanted to have.\n\u201cSo now, how could be it be with twenty little children and six of their teachers are killed \u2013 that that would not be an outrage, on top of, as Catherine said, almost 90 people a day being shot in our country.\u00a0 Who are we?\u00a0\n\u201cI just want to tell you a story: over the break \u2013 the Thanksgiving break \u2013 one of my colleagues, Congressman Danny Davis, a beautiful, lovely gentleman from Chicago \u2013 his grandson \u2013 somebody went into his daughter\u2019s home, and shot, in the head, his grandson.\u00a0 Fifteen years old.\u00a0 Went into the home, shot and ran out. Fifteen years old.\u00a0\n\u201cSo I called Danny, and I said, \u2018Danny, what is possible?\u00a0 Everything is inadequate.\u2019\u00a0 He was so beautiful.\u00a0 He prayed publicly for the family of the boy who shot his grandson.\u00a0 He took on the issue, as a call to action, with what we must do to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn\u2019t have them.\u00a0 He took the opportunity to go to some of the underlying causes of the despair people are experiencing.\n\u201cWhen he came to Congress this past week, I\u2019ve never seen so much strength.\u00a0 And Clare demonstrated that strength as well.\u00a0 Javon Wilson, just 15 years old.\u00a0 What is this?\u00a0 What is it?\n\u201cAt our first Newtown anniversary vigil, I shared the Sandy Hook promise: our hearts are broken, our spirit is not.\u00a0 Today, four years after a gunman took the lives of 20 children and six educators, our hearts remain broken, but our spirits are not.\n\u201cEvery day, almost 90 people lose their lives to gun violence in America but there have been more than 200 school shootings and 1,400 mass shootings in the U.S.\u00a0 It\u2019s insanity.\u00a0 This is not a statistic; it is an outrage.\n\u201cSo what we need to do is just to do our, again, outside mobilization.\u00a0 Moms Demand Action, thank you.\u00a0 Thank you; thank you so much, Shannon Watts, for your leadership \u2013 all of you for what you do.\u00a0\n\u201cIt\u2019s a sin.\u00a0 We are gathered in church.\u00a0 And a lot of the people who vote against our interest in this issue are church going people.\u00a0 You would think there would be a recognition of the value of every life.\u00a0 And you would think that Members of Congress would understand that may it be politically risky for them to vote the right way, their political survival is insignificant compared to the survival of all of the people who died at the hands of gun violence.\n\u201cWe have the legislation, we just ask for a vote.\u00a0 Why won\u2019t they give us a vote?\u00a0 Do they fear that we will succeed?\u00a0 Background checks, No Fly, No Buy \u2013 save more lives than any other initiatives we can put forth.\n\u201cWe meet with the families all the time.\u00a0 We draw strength from their courage.\u00a0 It\u2019s very humbling not to be able to deliver on that.\u00a0 But we are not going away.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll have something this week in Washington on the 14th but again, this starts the week of observances for this.\u00a0\n\u201cJohn Lewis, such a hero, an icon in our country \u2013 so many people, so many votes, but they won\u2019t give us one to register that.\u00a0 So we cannot despair.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ve told them: \u2018We\u2019re not going away.\u00a0 We are going to disarm hate.\u2019\u00a0 It may seem inconceivable to them, but it is inevitable to us.\u00a0 And we must shorten the distance between the inconceivable and the inevitable.\u00a0 We owe it to our children to be able to have them live in place where their safety is ensured, and for their families and our communities.\u00a0\n\u201cSo I\u2019ve come here to say: \u2018Thank you,\u2019 to all of you for being such an important force in all ofthis.\u00a0 Whatever maneuvering we can do in the Congress is totally inadequate without the outside mobilization.\u00a0 The mobilization is there.\u00a0 The legislation is clear.\u00a0 The need for a vote \u2013 that is being rejected.\u00a0 They cannot think for a moment that we will relax our guard.\u00a0\n\u201cSo, God bless you all for what you do.\u00a0 Thank you for what you do.\u00a0 When we do pass a bill, hopefully it will be soon, please be assured that it would have never happened without the sacrifices you all have made to share your stories and to also be present to disarm hate.\u00a0 Thank you.\u201d\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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": ["http://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-remarks-at-newtown-vigil-to-end-gun-violence"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4759271871298552, "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"}