One California member of Congress will no longer stand on the House floor to pay tribute to mass shooting victims. The day after the horrific attack in San Bernardino, Rep. Jackie Speier says she’ll boycott the congressional chamber or stay seated instead.
“I’m not going to stand up for a moment of silence again and then watch us do nothing. It’s hypocritical and it speaks to our impotence that we think that it’s good enough to just take out one minute and pray for the lives,” the Hillsborough Democrat said. “The families of those who have died don’t want our one minute of silence. They want some assurance that this kind of conduct is not going to be sanctioned in this country moving forward.
“I’ve had it. I have had it with inaction. I’ve had it with the sense that it’s OK that we not act,” Speier said, pounding her hand against her leg as she spoke. Speier was shot five times while on a congressional fact-finding mission into the People’s Temple in Jonestown in 1978.
The slayings at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on Wednesday killed 14 people and wounded 21 others.
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