“Enough is enough.”
That was the message of an intensely emotional speech by Rep. Debbie Dingell during the #NoBillNoBreak sit-in for gun control legislation, as she invoked her childhood with an abusive, gun-owning father.
“I know what it’s like to see a gun pointed at you, and wonder if you are going to live,” she said. “I know what it’s like to hide in a closet and pray to God, ‘Do not let anything happen to me.’”
Together with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Dingell has proposed legislation on gun control and domestic abuse that would keep guns away from perpetrators of domestic violence — a factor that is not currently considered in background checks for weapons ownership.
“We don’t talk about it, we don’t want to say that it happens in all kinds of households, and we still live in a society where we will let a convicted felon who was stalking somebody, of domestic abuse, still own a gun,” she said, followed by several dozen seconds of applause.
Dingell acknowledged that while implementing a “No Fly, No Buy” policy could lead to racial profiling, Republicans had failed to even engage in discussion surrounding that legislation.
“How can you protect someone’s civil liberties if you won’t come to the table to have a discussion?” she demanded. “The point of this discussion is that we’ve got to stop going to our corners… We’ve got to come and figure out how we’re going to make this nation safer.”
During her speech, Dingell also spoke about the tensions between herself and her husband, former Rep. John Dingell, a gun owner who represented her Michigan district for several decades before she took over the seat.
“Can’t it come to the table?” she asked.”Can’t we have a discussion? Can’t we say, ‘enough is enough’?”
Photo via Rep. Debbie Dingell / Twitter
