The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., is inscribed with the names of 58,307 U.S. military personnel killed during 18 years of conflict in Southeast Asia. For me, it is a solemn place to remember heroism and sacrifice. I’m always struck by the immense space taken up by the names etched in granite.

If we had a wall for the victims of gun violence, it would be equally powerful, and much, much larger. Since 1970, more Americans have died from domestic gun violence than in all wars dating to the American Revolution. To show the names of all 1.5 million victims of gun violence over the last 45 years, we would need a wall nearly 2½ miles long. The names inscribed on this imaginary wall would include hundreds of children and thousands of innocent bystanders shot to death by accident, by criminals, by terrorists and by the mentally ill. Two-thirds of the overall deaths would involve suicides.

If we put this memorial to the victims of gun violence in the heart of our nation’s capital, it would stretch from the Lincoln Memorial to the steps of the U.S. Capitol and back almost to the Washington Monument. It would take nearly an hour to walk the length of such a vast wall, and every inch would be inscribed with the name of beloved parents, children, siblings, and spouses taken too soon by gun violence or suicide by gun.

We, as a nation, should not need such a visceral reminder to support and enact safe and reasonable gun laws. Many bills have been introduced in Congress that would make our streets and schools safer. For example, federal law only requires licensed gun dealers to conduct background checks. That’s why I wrote the Fix Gun Checks Act, which would expand background checks to cover private sellers, gun shows and online sales, just as licensed dealers are required to conduct checks under the existing Brady Law.

Unfortunately, the House leadership is refusing to bring any of this commonsense legislation up for a vote. They won’t even consider lifting the ban on federal funding for gun violence research so that we can learn from nonpartisan up-to-date science.

I’ve had enough of this failure of leadership. Each week that we are in session, I will read on the House floor the names of those shot to death along with a brief description of who they were — this will be my ongoing “moment of silence” for gun violence victims. I will also create my own memorial wall, in the hallway outside my Washington, D.C., office. These measures feel so inadequate compared to the grief of families whose children never came back from school, or whose parents never came back from work. But each wall has to start somewhere.

Victims of gun violence deserve more from their leaders than just moments of silence. It’s time for action.