FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 22, 2015
Contact: Tina Dupuy, 202-225-9889
Grayson Reads the Names of the Orlando Shooting Victims During House Sit-In
“The time that I took to read this list, that’s pretty much the time it took to kill them.”
“The time that I took to read this list, that’s pretty much the time it took to kill them.”
WASHINGTON, DC - The following is a transcript of Rep. Alan Grayson’s (D-FL09) speech on the House Floor during the sit-in organized by Rep. John Lewis (GA-05). The Democratic lawmakers are demanding a vote to curb gun violence:
“The shooting took place eight blocks from my district, a week ago last Sunday. Here is the list of the victims: Stanley Almodovar, 23 years old; Amanda Alvear, 25 years old; Oscar Aracena-Montero, 26 years old; Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33 years old; Antonio Davon Brown, 29 years old; Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old; Angel Candelario-Padro, 28 years old; Juan Chevez-Martinez, just 25 years old; Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old; Cory James Connell, 21 years old; Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 years old; Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old; Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 years old; Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 years old; Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old; Peter Gonzalez-Cruz, just 22 years old; Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old; Paul Terrell Henry, 41 years old; Frank Hernandez, 27 years old; Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old; Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 years old; Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old; Eddie Justice, 30 years old; Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25 years old; Christopher Leinonen, 32 years old; Alejandro Martinez, 21 years old; Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49 years old; Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old; Kimberly Morris, 37 years old; Akyra Monet Murray, just 18 years old; Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 years old; Geraldo Ortiz-Jimenez, 25 years old; Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old; Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old; Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old; Enrique Rios, Jr., 25 years old; Jean Nives Rodriguez, 27 years old; Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old; Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24 years old; Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24 years old; Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old; Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old; Martin Torres, 33 years old; Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24 years old; Juan Rivera Velazquez, 37 years old; Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old; Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50 years old; Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old; Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 years old.
The time that I took to read this list, that’s pretty much the time it took to kill them. You can look at a video taken by one of the dead during the attack itself, and you can count 17 gunshots in five seconds, and the shooter stopped in the middle.
It is far too easy to kill too many people too quickly in this country today. And we have to do something about that. Otherwise these people died for no reason. But we can give their lives meaning by making sure that it can’t happen again. ‘It’s for we the living’ as Lincoln said, in the Gettysburg Address. It’s for we, us, the living, to make sure that we solve this problem.
I have learned some hard lessons this week on what’s it like being a congressman in the midst of a tragedy. First, just a couple of hours after the shooting was over, I got a call saying that the victims who survived were unconscious, they weren’t able to give consent, and the hospitals were not permitting their loved ones to provide any sort of aid under HIPAA rules. Well, we solved that problem.
The next day we got calls from two parents living in two other countries, who pled with us to try to get them visas, because they wanted to go to the funerals of their children. And then the day after that, we dealt with the problem of what to do with the remains, being transported out of the country, of the dead. Although those were easy problems.
Now comes the hard problem. The problem of how to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We have to make sure that we do our best so that people who have an evil intent can’t get a weapon of mass destruction in their hands. We may not always know what’s in peoples heads, we may not always know what’s in peoples hearts, but for sure we can see what’s in their hands, and we can control what’s in their hands. We desperately need in this country to make sure that there is a background check of everyone who wants to buy a weapon.
Are you with me? (Applause)
We desperately need to make sure that those who were identified already by law enforcement as the ones who are most likely to do harm to other citizens, we have to make sure that they can’t get the means to do so.
Are you with me? (Applause)
These are simple, obvious measures that the American people all support, almost to a man and a woman leaving aside the isolated leaders of the NRA and their tools in Congress, who (by the way) belong to the other party, not ours.
I’m telling you this. We can’t let this go. We can’t put this behind us. Not this time. Never again. Thank you.”
To watch this speech on You Tube, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hhLDNhmiU4&feature=youtu.be
Congressman Alan Grayson represents Florida’s 9th Congressional District, which includes Osceola County, as well as parts of Orange and Polk counties.
Grayson.House.Gov
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