Skip to main content

Norton to Introduce D.C. Mother Who Lost Daughter to Gun Violence at National Speak Out at Capitol, Tonight

July 14, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As the House recesses today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will introduce District of Columbia resident Nardyne Jefferies, whose daughter, Brishell Jones, was shot and killed on March 30, 2010, at a National Speak Out on gun violence, entitled "Lighting the Way: The Path Forward on Gun Violence," hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus and the Democratic Caucus tonight, Thursday, July 14, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building. Brishell was 16 years old when she was killed in the South Capitol Street Massacre, a mass shooting that took the lives of three other teenagers and wounded six others. Participants at the Speak Out will call on Congress to pass common-sense national legislation to address gun violence.

"Just as House Democrats believed they could not go home for July 4 in silence because of Republican resistance to considering gun safety legislation, we certainly cannot recess for seven weeks with gun safety legislation still on the table and not on the House floor," Norton said. "Members like me have had plenty to say and have even sat-in on the House floor. There are stirrings of possible legislation from Republicans. After hearing from actual families today, I do not see how Congress will be able to live with the status quo."