[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 87 (Tuesday, June 18, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4544-S4545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GUN VIOLENCE
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to speak about the continuing toll
of gun violence on our Nation and on my home State of Illinois.
This past week we lost too many Americans, and too many Illinoisans,
to gunfire. Last Monday, 18-year-old April McDaniel was sitting on her
porch in Chicago when a masked gunman in a car opened fire, killing
April and wounding four of her friends. Last Tuesday, four members of
the Andrus family in Darien, Illinois--including the family's two
daughters, ages 16 and 22--were shot to death in an apparent murder-
suicide. On Thursday, 19-year-old Robert Allen was killed in a drive-by
shooting on the South Side of Chicago. And over the weekend, at least 6
were killed and dozens more were wounded in shootings across the
Chicago area.
This senseless violence is devastating personally to the families
involved, and to all of us. Our thoughts and prayers are with the
victims and with their families. The sad reality is that gun violence
continues to be an epidemic in America. Over 11,000 Americans are
murdered with guns each year. If you count suicides and accidental
shootings, the death toll from guns rises to more than 31,000 Americans
each year. We have become almost used to this, haven't we? We hear
about it every night on the news and we begin to think this is normal.
But it isn't normal in any country on Earth for so many people to die
from the use of firearms.
You can get a sense of this grim toll by reading the daily ``Gun
Report'' by New York Times columnist Joe Nocera. The report compiles
news stories about shootings across the nation. For example,
yesterday's Gun Report describes shootings that took place over the
weekend. It mentions: a 3-year-old in Columbus, Ohio and a 4-year-old
in Wichita, Kansas who were hit on Friday by stray bullets; an 18-year-
old girl in Ankeny, Iowa, who was accidentally shot and killed by her
father on Friday; a 30-minute shooting spree in Omaha, Nebraska on
Saturday that left two dead and two critically injured; a 76-year-old
man who shot and killed his 75-year-old wife on Saturday in Cortlandt,
New York after an argument; and a man who walked into a Catholic church
in Ogden, Utah and shot his father-in-law in the head during Sunday
mass. These are just a few of the shootings mentioned in one Gun
Report. And each new day brings another long list of shootings in
communities across America. It is appalling.
Last Friday marked 6 months since the tragedy in Newtown when a
gunman murdered 20 small children and 6 educators at Sandy Hook
Elementary School. In the 6 months since that awful day, over 5,000
more Americans have been killed by gunfire.
I commend my colleagues from Connecticut, Senator Chris Murphy and
Senator Richard Blumenthal, who have come to this floor repeatedly to
call for reforms that will spare other families the tragedy that the
Newtown families have suffered.
We need to heed those calls. We cannot simply shrug our shoulders and
write off this epidemic of gun violence as the cost of living in
America.
There is some progress to report when it comes to reducing gun
violence. Officials at the local and state level are taking proactive
steps that are showing promising results.
In Chicago, for example, targeted policing strategies and community-
based violence-prevention efforts have contributed to a 31 percent
reported decrease in homicides compared to last year. The violence of
this past week shows that more needs to be done, but this decline in
killings is positive news. I commend the local officials, including
mayor Rahm Emanuel, who are doing everything they can to reduce gun
violence.
The General Assembly in Illinois just passed important legislation
that would mandate background checks for private gun sales and require
reporting of lost and stolen guns to law enforcement, something we
failed to do. It should be a national law.
These are steps that will help keep guns out of the hands of
criminals and the mentally ill. They will help reduce crime and save
lives.
Other States are stepping up as well, with significant reforms passed
in States like Colorado, New York, Maryland and Connecticut.
But State action alone is not sufficient. We need to do our part in
Washington. Too often these guns cross State lines. Too often States
have weak gun laws next to States with strong gun laws. That is why
Congress needs to plug the gaping loopholes in our Federal background
check system by passing legislation by Senator Joe Manchin, a
conservative Democrat from West Virginia, and Senator Patrick Toomey, a
conservative Senator from Pennsylvania.
Congress also needs to pass a bill with real teeth to crack down on
straw purchasing and gun trafficking, a bill that I worked on with
Senators Leahy, Collins, Gillibrand, and my colleague from Illinois,
Mark Kirk.
Members of Congress need to take a stand on the issue of gun safety
and gun violence. There should be no more hiding behind these empty,
sham reform proposals written by the gun lobby to accomplish nothing.
And no more claims that all we need to do is just enforce the laws on
the books because we know the gun lobby has put loopholes in those laws
that you can drive a truck through.
I want to mention a few things Congress should do to help reduce gun
violence beyond the two items I mentioned. First, I will introduce
legislation to encourage more crime gun tracing by State and local law
enforcement. Crime gun tracing is a valuable tool for criminal
investigations. When a gun is recovered in a crime, a police department
can ask the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, known
as the ATF, to trace the crime gun back to its first retail sale. This
information can help identify criminal suspects and potential gun
traffickers. When all the crime guns in an area are traced, law
enforcement can start to define and identify trafficking patterns.
[[Page S4545]]
ATF's crime gun tracing system is easy for law enforcement and it is
free. Several years ago I reached out and challenged all of the law
enforcement agencies in Illinois to submit the guns they had seized in
crimes for tracing through the ATF. I am pleased to report that 388
Illinois agencies are now using the system called eTRACE but there are
still thousands and thousands of law enforcement agencies across
America that are not tracing their crime guns.
The legislation I am introducing is called the Crime Gun Tracing Act.
It will require law enforcement agencies that apply for Federal COPS
grants to report how many crime guns they recovered in the last year
and how many they submitted for tracing. It will then give a preference
in COPS grant awards to agencies that traced all the crime guns they
recovered.
To be clear, law enforcement agencies should not just sit around and
wait for a bill to pass before they start tracing crime guns. Tracing
brings enormous benefits at virtually no cost. Agencies should not wait
for this bill; they ought to start tracing today if they have not done
so already. But the reality is many police departments, sheriffs'
offices, have not been doing this. My bill will create an incentive for
them to start.
Let me say something else. The Senate needs to confirm a Director to
head the ATF. For the record, ATF has never had a Senate-confirmed
Director. The Senate refused to confirm a Director under President
George W. Bush and refused the second proposed Director under President
Obama. Now a third candidate is being considered.
Since the Director position began requiring Senate confirmation in
2006, ATF has only had short-term Acting Directors, temporary leaders.
Whether it is a Republican President or a Democratic President, the
gun lobby and their friends in the Senate have objected to every
nominee. It looks as if they are preparing to mount an effort to stop
the most recent nominee by President Obama, Todd Jones of Minnesota.
To be effective and accountable, Federal law enforcement agencies
need Senate-confirmed leadership. But the gun lobby has done everything
it can to keep this agency leaderless and weak. This is beyond
hypocritical.
After the tragedy in Newtown, Mr. Wayne LaPierre of the National
Rifle Association appeared before our Senate Judiciary Committee and
said he opposed efforts to close gun loopholes because ``we need to
enforce the thousands of gun laws that are currently on the books.''
Well, the agency that enforces Federal gun laws and refers gun cases
for Federal prosecution is the ATF. In fact, for the past 15 years
there has been a provision written in an appropriations bill, a gun
lobby rider, that prohibits any of ATF's enforcement functions from
being moved to another agency. So the NRA is making sure that the ATF
is the only game in town when it comes to enforcing gun laws, and then
they are making sure it never has a permanent Director.
I want to put the gun lobby on notice. If we can't get a Senate-
confirmed Director for the ATF, then I am going to move to repeal the
rider and bring in other Federal agencies with Senate-confirmed
leadership--such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation--to make sure
gun laws are enforced effectively in this country. The National Rifle
Association and the gun lobby cannot have it both ways. They cannot
complain that the gun laws are not being enforced and then stop any
effort to put a permanent leader in place at this agency. The gun lobby
has to make that choice. If they want to enforce gun laws on the books,
they can work with us to confirm a Director at the ATF. If they want to
keep blocking the ATF from having a Director, we will have to get other
agencies involved to make sure laws are enforced. It is that simple.
In closing, I again extend my sympathy and prayers to the victims and
families of gun violence. We have to do our part in Washington to put
an end to this. We haven't had the votes we needed yet, but we should
not give up. The American people are counting on us to make America
safer.
Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that my last statement be
placed in a separate part of the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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