Texas Representative James Talarico spoke on the house floor about gun violence while Republicans try to loosen gun restrictions.
"We are here debating a bill that will loosen gun regulations," the Democratic lawmaker said. "We're the only country in the world that allows this to happen."
"Globally, we are not an outlier in mental health," he continued. "We're not an outlier in school security. We're an outlier in the number of readily accessible weapons of war in our community."
"We have ignored God's messengers," he continued. "This is moral madness."
"You can't offer thoughts and prayers on Monday and then debate a bill to loosen gun regulations on Tuesday," he said. "I believe in the power of prayer. I believe prayer can change lives."
"I believe prayer can change the world, but there is something profoundly cynical about asking God to solve a problem that we're not willing to solve ourselves," he added.
Republicans have blamed everything and everyone for gun violence except for the easy access to firearms in this gun-saturated country. They can't blame mental illness when their hero Donald Trump signed a law in 2017 that nullified an Obama-backed rule that added people with mental illnesses to the national background check database. And Gov. Greg Abbott blamed mental illness, and yet he cut funding for the department that oversees mental health services in Texas.
It's.
The.
Guns.
