[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 16, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S3963]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE MILLION MOM MARCH
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I had a tremendous honor this weekend to
march in the Million Mom March, along with about 750,000 citizens of
this great country. They were moms; they were dads; they were grandmas
and grandpas; and children in strollers.
We really all had in our hearts one wish for Mother's Day--to turn
around the gun violence that is plaguing our Nation.
It was quite a march. It was quite an event because the emotion was
high. The spirits were high. Perhaps the most touching part of it, for
me and for many others, was the presence of so many moms and dads whose
families have been touched by gun violence, whose children have been
killed by gun violence, cut down by gun violence, maimed by gun
violence.
The victims were there with a message: That they want to make sure
other families never have feelings of pain and loss and anguish which
will last all their lives.
I am embarrassed to say to my constituents that this Congress has
done nothing--nothing at all--to reduce gun violence in our country.
After Columbine, we passed five sensible gun measures--very modest,
good, sensible gun measures--such as making sure every handgun is sold
with a safety lock, and others that are very sensible: closing the gun
show loophole so that a mentally imbalanced person or a criminal cannot
walk into a gun show and simply be handed a gun--hand the cash over and
get the gun with no background check.
We know the background checks work, but they don't apply to gun
shows. So Senator Lautenberg offered a very important amendment and it
was added to the juvenile justice bill to close that gun show loophole.
Vice President Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote. We know that will
keep guns out of the criminals' hands. But what has happened in this
Senate? Nothing. The power of the gun lobby can be felt in this
Chamber--the power of the money of the gun lobby, the power of the
threat of the gun lobby, and the gun lobby rules in this Senate, the
gun lobby rules in the House of Representatives, and the gun lobby says
if one of the candidates is elected President--namely, George Bush--
they will run an office out of the White House.
Mr. President, enough is enough. Let's look at the deaths from gun
violence in our country. There were 58,168 deaths in Vietnam over 11
years. They were tragic deaths. People were cut down in the prime of
their lives. In 11 years, there were 58,168 deaths. Let's look at the
last 11 years in America--the war on our streets, the war in our
schools and, yes, even the war in our churches and Jewish community
centers, where gunmen come in and cut people down in the prime of their
lives; and they cut children down. There were 395,441 gun deaths in the
11-year period.
Now, we stopped the war in Vietnam--Democrats, Republicans,
Independents, people of every race, color, and creed. We stopped that
war. We can stop this war. But I will tell you, it isn't going to be
easy. The gun lobby is not going to make it easy. We have to have
courage. There are those of us in this Senate who are going to be on
this floor from now on, in the name of the million moms who marched
with the dads, the grandmas, the grandpas, and the children. We are
going to be here. We are going to be here day after day. We are going
to force this Senate to look this issue in the eye, to look families in
the eye, to bring out the five sensible gun control measures that are
in the juvenile justice bill. What excuse is there since Columbine High
School, where 13 people were killed? Thirteen kids are killed every
day.
Thank you, Mr. President. We will be back on this issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois is recognized.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from California.
Every day in America, 13 mothers receive a phone call or a knock on the
door, a word from a neighbor, and their lives are changed. Every day in
America, 13 mothers learn that one of their children has been killed by
a gun. Every day in America, 13 mothers have a pain in their heart that
will be there for a lifetime.
This last Sunday, I went to Chicago, IL, on the banks of Lake
Michigan. Our Million Mom March chapter came together, and thousands of
people came out. They were inspired, of course, by the fact that it was
Mother's Day and that we were addressing this issue because it is a
family issue, and especially an issue that mothers take to heart
because mothers, by their nature, protect their children. They came
forward on the banks of Lake Michigan in Chicago and here on The Mall
in Washington, DC, and in Los Angeles, and in cities across America, to
say: Let us protect our children; protect our children from the gun
criminals who menace our neighborhoods, our communities and our
schools; protect our children from the gang bangers who spray these
bullets from semiautomatic and automatic weapons across playgrounds,
day care centers, and bus stops; protect our children from careless gun
owners who insist on their constitutional right to own a gun but will
not accept their moral responsibility to store it safely away from
children; protect our children from a gun lobby in this town that has
made a mockery of democracy, which owns this Chamber and owns the House
of Representatives, which stops us in our tracks; protect our children
from the indifference of millions of American families who know what I
say is true but who didn't come to the march, who don't call a
Congressman or a Senator and just shake their heads and say, ``It's
politics, it's hopeless; they don't listen, they don't care.''
The Million Mom March was an inspiration to so many people. It was an
inspiration to me because at the end of the march in Chicago, the Bell
Campaign, which sponsored it, invited the families of gun victims to
come forward and literally ring a bell for their victim. They started
coming slowly from the crowd, and then the numbers increased. The
procession went on and on and on--black, white, brown, men, women,
brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, breaking down in tears as
they pealed that bell for a gun victim.
I stood there, as a Member of the Senate, humbled by that experience,
trying to imagine for one brief moment what it must be like to receive
that telephone call or that knock on the door. I vowed I would come
back to this Chamber this week and begin a personal campaign, a
personal crusade to make the Senate act on this issue. To think that it
is 1 year after Columbine and we have done nothing--we have not passed
a bill to keep guns out of the hands of criminals or kids; we have been
totally stopped by this gun lobby--it is a disgrace, a disgrace to this
Chamber, to the Congress, and to this country. The million moms who
came forward are watching and waiting and praying that before this
ends, we will do something.
The National Rifle Association bought a full-page ad in the
Washington Post Friday criticizing the Million Mom March. Here is what
they said: ``It is a political agenda masquerading as motherhood.''
I have a message for the National Rifle Association. This was no
masquerade; this was the real thing. These were real families who have
endured the pain and suffering of gun violence. They are coming forward
and challenging you, gun lobby, National Rifle Association, and
challenging us in the Senate and in the House to do what is right for
America, to reduce gun violence, reduce the pain, and reduce the
suffering.
There is no excuse for the fact that, for 1 year, the Republican
leadership in the House and Senate has refused to bring a bill to the
floor so we could vote and send to the President a bill to keep guns
out of the hands of criminals and kids. You will hear more about this
issue.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized
for 10 minutes.
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