[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 5 (Thursday, January 9, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S201-S202]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING JAVIER MARTINEZ

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, many of us have come back from a 
couple of wonderful weeks in our home States, traveling and visiting 
with families, and had the privilege of spending time with loved ones 
and sharing our hopes and plans for the new year. Not everyone was so 
fortunate.
  I rise today to honor the memory of yet another tragic victim of gun 
violence in Connecticut and our country.
  On December 28, in New Haven, shortly before the beginning of this 
new year, one family's time together with their son was cut short when 
Javier Martinez was shot and killed.
  I have his picture here in the Chamber. His memory is with us today, 
as I ask this body to honor him, along with other victims of gun 
violence who have died since Newtown, and those who have died before 
Newtown, and now I ask them to be remembered not only in words but also 
in action by this body, so that Javier shall not have died in vain.
  He was only 18 years old. He was a senior at Common Ground High 
School in New Haven, one of the really extraordinary educational 
institutions in our State.
  His teachers and classmates describe him as a kind, intelligent young 
man who was becoming a leader in the school and in his community.
  He had a bright future. In fact, he had the whole world, his whole 
life ahead of him.
  At Common Ground, a charter school that focuses on sustainability and 
connecting students with natural resources in their own communities, he 
was absolutely thriving.
  I have heard that some of his classmates and teachers at Common 
Ground are perhaps watching right now or will watch at some point, and 
I want to thank them for joining in honoring his memory and continuing 
his work to make our planet, our world, our Nation, and the community 
of New Haven better, and keeping faith with his memory.
  Javier cared about his community and the environment and the issues 
of sustainability and clean air and clean water, and he took action to 
improve the world around him.
  Last summer he participated in a highly competitive internship at the 
Nature Conservancy, where he worked to protect endangered species. A 
director of this program regarded Javier as one of the most outstanding 
participants that the program ever had.
  He spent last spring planting trees--planting trees--with the New 
Haven Urban Resources Initiative. He planted trees that he will never 
sit under, but the world will be better for all that he did--one small 
act, one small part of what Javier did to make New Haven and the world 
better.
  This past fall he joined a crew of West River Stewards, identifying 
and documenting sources of pollution along the West River in the New 
Haven area.
  Not only did he have a bright future ahead of him, but he knew what 
he wanted. He was pursuing the American dream. He was seeking and 
working to make America a better place for him and for his fellow 
students at Common Ground.
  By all accounts he was not only dedicated and hard working, but he 
had a good heart. He had a great sense of himself. He stayed out of 
trouble. He had no criminal record whatsoever, it goes without saying. 
He worked hard at his studies.
  He was loved in New Haven by his classmates, by his teachers, and by 
all who knew him. He had a growing dedication to protecting that world. 
Unfortunately, our society failed to protect him, failed to protect him 
during the simple act of walking home, failed to protect him from gun 
violence, failed to protect him in a neighborhood where he thought he 
would be safe as he walked.
  On that early morning of December 28, shortly before 1 a.m., he was 
found shot to death on the streets of New Haven. In fact, he was 
walking from his house to a friend's house. He did not have a car, so 
his only choice was to walk. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds and 
was pronounced dead at the scene.
  The police are continuing to investigate. Have no doubt that they are 
working hard. The New Haven Police have been extraordinarily responsive 
and responsible in combating gun violence, so I know they are going to 
get answers. Whether they will ever get enough answers to prosecute 
someone remains to be seen. But I know they are dedicated to finding 
out what happened on that night.
  The death of Javier Martinez is a tragedy, heartbreaking. It is 
heartbreaking, as are many of the random deaths in America resulting 
from gun violence. This young man is a testament to our continuing 
responsibility, our obligation, and our opportunity to combat and 
prevent gun violence on the streets and in the neighborhoods across our 
country.
  Just a few weeks ago I spoke on this floor, in this very place, about 
another promising young person from Connecticut who was killed by a 
person with a gun whose name was Erika Robinson. The victim of that 
crime, Erika Robinson, just like Javier, was killed because she was at 
the wrong place at the wrong time.
  We ought to remember some of the other victims. We should keep in 
mind all of the now tens of thousands, just since Newtown, who maybe 
survived but who are changed and challenged in ways they never could 
have envisioned. Their lives have been changed forever.
  Amber Smith, who worked as a manager in a New Haven Burger King 
restaurant, was shot on September 15, 2013, when two robbers entered 
that Burger King.
  The robbers demanded that she open a safe in the business, and one of 
them shot her in the upper hip and through her leg. She was just 19 
years old at the time on September 15, 2013.
  She remembers thinking that she was going to die and wondering who 
would take care of her two small children. She almost bled to death but 
was saved, fortunately, by receiving surgery in the emergency room. So 
she survived the shooting, but she lives with the psychological and the 
physical trauma of that shooting every day.
  These random acts of violence may not always make the national news, 
they may not always take a life, but they change lives, and they take 
lives one or two at a time.
  Those shooting deaths of Javier Martinez and Erika Robinson have 
become all too often the mundane evil of our time. The banality of evil 
is found in gun violence, and we seem to accept it all too often with 
indifference as another news item. Yet it should be as repugnant and 
abhorrent and unacceptable as the deaths of 20 innocent children in 
Newtown and 6 great educators because every act of gun violence 
diminishes us as a nation and as a community.
  Our country has come to the point that gun violence can happen 
anywhere. If your life has not been touched by it, there is a near 
certainty that it will be at some point--tragically, unfortunately--
because far too often communities suffer in silence. We need to end 
that silence. We need to end the inaction and the acceptance of this 
mundane and banal evil that lives among us.
  While we have failed to act in this Chamber, even though we had a 
majority of 55 Senators ready to approve very simple, commonsense 
measures to stop gun violence, the President has done what he can 
through executive action, most recently on mental health. I commend him 
for those actions. He has done what he can to strengthen Federal 
background checks for firearms purchases. I thank him for that action.
  These changes are incremental, but they are steps in the right 
direction.
  States have taken the leadership on this issue as well, maybe even 
more so than the Federal Government. My own

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State of Connecticut, laudably, has passed laws to effectively ban, for 
example, the sale of assault weapons.
  But this body and this government need to act. The Federal Government 
has a responsibility that only it can address, because we know that 
guns are trafficked across State lines. Stolen and illegally bought 
guns are trafficked across State lines. No single State can put a stop 
to it.
  We know that without action in this body, mental health will remain 
an unmet need in this country. We know that without action in this 
country, background checks for people who buy firearms will be 
incomplete and inadequate.
  So Javier's death should be a reminder and a call to action. As the 
people of his family and New Haven mourn his death, we should celebrate 
his contributions in making our planet better, in protecting the 
precious resources that, unfortunately, he was unable to enjoy, and 
resolve to protect better the innocent people, particularly our 
children, who at any moment, at any place, may become victims of gun 
violence.

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