[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 2 (Monday, January 6, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7-S8]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            Gun Legislation

  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, I hope we will confirm Janet Yellen 
later today.
  I come to the floor for a few minutes to do what I have done most 
weeks since the failure of this Senate to pass commonsense gun 
legislation in the spring of 2013, to talk about the number of 
Americans who have lost their lives due to gun violence. That number 
stands today at 12,041. Over 12,000 people have died at the hands of 
gun violence since December 14, which of course is the day in which 20 
6-year-olds and 7-year-olds and 6 teachers and professionals who were 
protecting them lost their lives in Newtown, CT.
  This is probably the last time we will have the chance to display 
this particular number because the Web site which has been totalling 
this is going to stop doing so. It is probably a good thing in this 
respect: Once that 1 became a crooked number, we weren't going to have 
room on this poster any longer; and at some point in the middle of next 
year, the 1 would click up to a 2 and we would be over 20,000 people 
killed due to guns. Frankly, this doesn't even count the suicides. This 
is just the people who have died as a result of gun homicides, and the 
number just goes up and up at a rate which is hard to comprehend.
  So I wish to speak for a few minutes about a few of the 
representative victims we have seen across the country in the last 
year, which make up just a small subset of the 12,000 people, and I 
hope maybe one of these days it will inspire this place to action.
  I was at the swearing in of the new mayor of New Haven on New Year's 
Day. Toni Harp is the first female mayor of New Haven, the 50th mayor 
of New Haven, and she will inherit a city being absolutely ravaged by 
gun violence--20 gun homicides in the last year and 67 shootings. Each 
one of them hurts, but the last one was particularly devastating.
  Javier Martinez died on December 28, 2013. Javier attended a local 
high school focused on learning about and protecting the environment, 
Common Ground High School. He was described as one of the most 
outstanding participants in the 20-year history of a program put on 
through the school whereby kids spent part of their summer on Block 
Island, a little island in between Connecticut and Rhode Island, where 
they work to eliminate invasive species and spread the environmental 
gospel to visitors to that small island.
  He was beloved by his family and by his friends. He was thinking of 
becoming an arborist or environmental scientist. His community--in 
particular, his pretty, sleepy neighborhood in which this shooting 
happened--has been absolutely torn apart through the loss of Javier--
Bebo, as he was called by his grandparents.
  He is one of 20 people in New Haven, CT, who were lost. Twelve of the 
20 were under 30 years old. Eleven of them were men; 17 of them were 
African American. That is the story in New Haven. It is young African 
American males who are dying almost every week as part of the 12,041.
  Just a couple of months earlier, John Allen Read died in Texas due to 
a gunshot wound. What makes John Allen Reed exceptional is that he was 
5 years old. He is one of dozens of accidental gun deaths happening all 
across this country.
  He and his 6-month-old sibling were in the care of a regular baby 
sitter, but a baby sitter who feared for her safety so she carried a 
gun with her. But she left the gun on a table and fell asleep. The 5-
year-old got the gun. When she woke up to try to find the kids, she 
found John dead with a fatal gunshot wound.
  We heard the stories all throughout 2013. I don't know whether 
statistically there were more in 2013 than in previous years. But 
because we don't require much if any training before buying a gun, we 
have young baby sitters leaving guns unattended with these absolutely 
devastating results.
  How about 4 months before that in Seattle, where Molly Conley, a 15-
year-old, a great goalie on her high school team, a straight-A student, 
was killed while she was walking back with friends after celebrating 
her recent birthday at a sleepover. Detectives believe a shooter opened 
fire on Molly Conley and her group of friends.

[[Page S8]]

  Her nickname was ``4.0'' because she was such a good student. ``She 
always smiled. She gave people smiles, and she was joyful and kind. She 
had a generous spirit,'' said Molly's mother.
  Molly, John, and Javier are just three of the voices of victims we 
need to start talking about on the floor, because if the statistics 
don't seem to be moving people to action, maybe the stories will.
  As I hope we will this year, let's be realistic about what we can and 
can't do. I have come here every week to talk about the stories of the 
people who have died at the hands of guns. I understand there is no law 
that is going to completely eradicate gun violence, and I understand 
that there is no one solution at hand which will have a radical 
transformation overnight.
  I believe this is about gun laws. But I also understand it is about 
better mental health treatment. I also understand it is about a culture 
of violence. I also understand it is about a sense of hopelessness felt 
by a lot of kids in poor neighborhoods which leads them to violence as 
a way of solving common, everyday disputes.
  So I am ready on the floor of the Senate to have a real, sober, 
dispassionate argument about what we can do together this year to try 
to make sure this number in 2014 is just a little bit lower than it was 
in 2013.
  With that in mind, I will leave us with this one last story, and that 
is the story of Zina Daniel.
  Zina Daniel took out a restraining order on her husband after years 
of violence and abuse. Police were reportedly called to this home 
dozens of times. Her husband was upset about that restraining order, 
and knowing that he couldn't get a gun at a retailer because he 
wouldn't pass a background check, he went online to Armslist. Within 
hours he found a seller who would supply to him a .40 caliber Glock 
handgun, which he picked up in a McDonald's parking lot for $500 cash. 
The next day, he went into Zina's workplace, and he murdered her and 
two other women. He injured four others.
  Zina's brother said this:

       I'm a gun owner, a hunter and a member of the National 
     Rifle Association. I believe in the Second Amendment, but I 
     also believe in sensible gun laws. I've seen how devastating 
     gun violence can be. And I know that Radcliffe never should 
     have been able to buy a gun online without a background 
     check. A background check would have saved my sister's life.

  I don't know what we will be able to get done this year. I don't know 
if there are 60 votes in the Senate for the kind of expansion of 
background checks that many of us, including Zina's brother, would like 
to see. But let's not let the whole year go by without at least some 
attempt among Senators of good will on both sides of the aisle, so that 
when this number does come back up at the end of 2014, it is just a 
little bit lower.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.