Anne Arundel Today

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) issued the following statement one year after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas:

"A year ago today, the savage mass shooting that claimed the lives of nineteen children and two teachers and wounded seventeen others at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, grieved our country. Even 365 days later, we still feel that pain.  As we mark this somber anniversary, I pray for the families of those we lost with the hope that they can find the strength and courage to carry on without their loved ones. I offer those prayers while recognizing that only action can give them meaning.

"Although the Uvalde attack pained the American people, it sadly did not surprise them. From Sandy Hook to Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School, the Robb Elementary shooting was just the latest massacre inflicted upon a place of learning by a disturbed individual armed with a weapon of war. Even in the wake of similar tragedies in the past, Republican inaction prevented Congress from addressing America's gun-violence epidemic. Shortly after Uvalde, however, Democrats came together to enact the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the most significant piece of legislation addressing gun violence in decades. As House Majority Leader, I brought that long-overdue legislation to the Floor to help our country take an important step toward ending this senseless violence. Our Democratic House Majority also passed a bill that would reinstitute the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban to take military-style firearms like the one used in Uvalde off of America's streets. Sadly, Republicans opposed that measure and blocked it from receiving a fair vote in the Senate. Democrats, however, will keep working to end gun-violence and promote public safety until tragedies like Uvalde appear only in history books instead of the daily headlines." 

Original source can be found here.