[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 153 (Wednesday, November 3, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13782-S13783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          VIOLENCE IN SEATTLE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, during the course of our debate on the 
floor of the Senate today, we have considered a myriad of important 
amendments to a very important trade bill. The attention of Senators on 
both sides of the aisle was focused on the floor, of course, but it was 
also focused on our Cloakrooms, the rooms that are a few feet away from 
me. Again, on television, every time we walked in the Cloakroom, we 
looked up to see another all-news channel with pictures that were 
incredible. Of course, the footage today comes from the city of 
Seattle, WA. Seattle, WA, has become another battlefront in America's 
endless gun war. Seattle, WA, erupted in violence today.
  As I stand here now, I don't know if they have been able to apprehend 
the terrorist who was involved in this. They were searching for him. 
The latest news suggests that two people are dead and two are 
critically wounded. I know some eight or nine schools have been locked 
down with children inside in the surrounding neighborhood, for fear 
they might become victims of senseless gun violence as well.
  One of my colleagues in the Senate, Patty Murray, lives in Seattle, 
WA, just a few blocks away from the scene. She has been on the phone 
all day calling her son, a grown man who is working at a business 
nearby, to make certain he was safe. Her plea to her son to take care, 
I am sure, has been repeated over and over thousands of times by the 
residents in Seattle who are worried about their loved ones who might 
be in the path of another gun terrorist.
  This surreal scene that seems to be unfolding in Seattle as we watch 
the television screen shows SWAT teams going through the neighborhoods 
of that lovely city with bulletproof shields, trying to find this gun 
terrorist, schools locked down, people staying behind closed doors for 
fear if they walk out in the street, they will literally be killed, as 
two already have been.
  This is what happened today in the State of Washington. But America's 
families should also know what did not happen today in the city of 
Washington--Washington, DC. What did not happen today was a meeting 
between House and Senate conferees to finish work on a commonsense gun 
control bill to try to keep guns out of the hands of those who would 
misuse them--kids, criminals, people with a history of violent mental 
illness.
  The Nation was shocked and the Senate was shocked a few months ago 
with the Columbine killings--shocked into finally doing something. We 
passed a bill by one vote, the tie-breaking vote being that of Vice 
President Al Gore, who came to this floor and voted for the bill which 
provided, very modestly, that before a person can buy a gun at a gun 
show, we have the right to know whether they have ever been convicted 
of a violent crime or whether they have a history of violent mental 
illness.
  Is it a radical idea to try to keep guns out of the hands of kids, 
criminals, and those who are unstable? Most American families don't 
find that radical. I am glad we passed that bill. We sent it over a few 
hundred feet away to the House of Representatives so that, in our 
bicameral Government, they could do their part of the job.
  Well, in the ensuing time between it leaving the Senate and arriving 
in the House, the people with the gun lobbies in Washington got very 
busy. They lined up enough votes to literally stall and kill that bill. 
So we have the only attempt in this congressional session for sensible 
gun control being stopped in its tracks by the gun lobby on Capitol 
Hill. Yet day after frightening day, another city across the United 
States of America is subjected to senseless gun violence.
  Today, it was Seattle. Yesterday, it was Honolulu, HI, where a man 
walked into the company where he once worked and killed seven people 
with a handgun, a man who had a history of psychological problems. When 
they finally apprehended him and searched his home, they found some 18 
different weapons, semiautomatic weapons, shotguns, and handguns--a 
small arsenal in the hands of a person who was turned down when he 
attempted to get a firearm owner's permit in 1994.

  That was Honolulu yesterday; Seattle today, two more victims.
  I need not tell you that nothing happened on Capitol Hill yesterday 
to deal with gun violence, and nothing happened today as this senseless 
violence unfolds in Seattle. You have to ask yourself whether the men 
and women elected to the Senate and to the House of Representatives can 
walk blindly by the television screens and ignore this endless war of 
gun violence in America that unfolds every day.
  Have we become so oblivious to the pain that is being visited upon 
America by the proliferation of guns in the hands of those who 
shouldn't have them? You would have to draw the conclusion that the gun 
lobby has blinded this Congress to the reality of gun violence in 
America.
  Sadly, what happened in Honolulu yesterday and is happening in 
Seattle even as we speak is repeated day in and day out across America. 
We lose 13 children every single day in America, as many children as 
were killed in Columbine we lose every day in gun violence.
  Have we become so callous we can't even feel this any longer, that we 
don't understand what is happening to our country, this great and noble 
Nation which has allowed itself to disintegrate into areas of violence 
that, frankly, people around the world can't even understand? How can 
this Nation that has so much to say for itself stand by and do 
literally nothing when it comes to this gun violence?
  This Congress has been at its worst when it comes to responding to 
this national crisis--at its worst. This Congress has been a captive of 
the gun lobby, unable and unwilling to promote even the most basic and 
modest provision in the law to protect families across America. We 
stand idly by.
  Some even argue, well, the answer is to give everyone in America a 
gun. What a solution that would be, the so-called ``concealed carry 
law.'' So that no matter what restaurant you walk into, what high 
school basketball game you attend, what mall you stroll through, never 
knowing if that little argument in the corner is going to erupt into 
gunfire because people are packing guns right and left. What an answer. 
That is no answer whatsoever. America's families know it.
  Let me tell you something else that recently happened. Senator Boxer 
of California put a provision in an appropriations bill which said as 
follows: No licensed gun dealer in the United States can sell a gun to 
a person they know to be intoxicated. They accepted the amendment on 
the floor. As soon as it got to conference, the gun lobby took it out. 
Think about that. They would even want us to allow gun dealers to sell 
guns to intoxicated people. How irresponsible can you be?
  When I tried to put in an amendment that held gun owners who are 
licensed legally responsible for the safe storage of their own guns 
away from children--beaten back by the gun lobby, unacceptable. Many 
States have put that standard in the law. But in Washington we wouldn't 
even consider it as we see day after weary day children finding the gun 
cabinet, reaching in, getting a handgun, killing themselves, or some 
innocent playmate whose family may not have even known there was a gun 
in the residence.

  When we tried to put a provision in the law to say you can't buy more 
than one gun a month in the United States, unacceptable; one gun a 
month, unacceptable.
  This fellow in Honolulu and others build up a personal arsenal and 
build up their own psychological problems to the point where they break 
and turn on innocent people.
  I hope those who serve in Congress understand that we will be held 
accountable and should be held accountable. But I hope even more that 
families across America who are afraid of gun violence in their 
communities and who are fed up with what the gun lobby has done to this 
Congress will speak out. That is the only way this will change. You 
have to ask your candidate for Congress, the House Member or Senate: 
Where do you stand? Where are you going to be when it comes to sensible 
gun control? Will you stand up for the families of America or will you 
stand up for the gun lobby and the National Rifle Association? It is a 
very basic question. If it is not asked and

[[Page S13783]]

answered, the sad reality is that what happened today in Seattle and 
what happened yesterday in Honolulu could happen in anyone's hometown 
tomorrow.
  We have been told by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, 
Henry Hyde, that it is not likely the conference will meet in the next 
few days on this gun control bill. That is a shame. We may leave this 
year doing absolutely nothing to make America's streets safer.
  Frankly, this Congress, again, has put first things last. We have 
done some good things today; we are proud of them, I am sure. But 
tonight's news will not herald our accomplishments on the Senate floor. 
Tonight's news reports another tragedy in America, a tragedy in America 
which this Senate and this House of Representatives refuses to even 
acknowledge.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I can't help but lament that we have an 
administration that has prosecuted fewer people for gun violations than 
any administration in modern history. That is something that could be 
done today. It could have started this afternoon; It could have begun 7 
years ago; but it was not.

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