[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 13, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2819-S2820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, on May 4, 2015, Officer Brian Moore was 
killed in the line of duty. This was an exceptional young police 
officer in New York City. He was young enough that he still lived in 
his father's home, but he was experienced enough, old enough that he 
had already become a decorated officer in the NYPD and had made over 
150 arrests since joining the department just 5 years ago.
  Commissioner Bill Bratton said: ``In his very brief career, he 
already proved himself to be an exceptional young officer.''
  We have heard a lot about law enforcement gone wrong, but the reality 
is that every single day police officers are under threat and they are 
in danger.
  All Brian Moore did on the evening of May 2 was pull up behind 
someone who was acting in a suspicious manner, and as they began 
talking to him, the man turned and fired at the car. Officer Moore was 
struck in the cheek. He had trauma to his brain. Ninety minutes after 
the shooting, officers arrested the man who perpetrated this crime. He 
did it with a stolen weapon--one of 23 weapons that were stolen in a 
2011 robbery at Little's Bait & Tackle Pawn Shop in Perry, GA.
  Detective Mike Cerullo said of him:

       He was a great kid. I can't say a bad thing about him. He 
     always had a smile on his face.

  Officer Moore was an officer who was rising through the ranks very 
quickly and who was beloved in his community. He grew up on Long 
Island, tragically and ironically in a town with an athletic field at 
the high school named after Edward Byrne--another alumnus of that high 
school who was killed in the line of duty as a 22-year-old rookie in 
1988. That name may be familiar to us because we now hand out millions 
of dollars in Byrne grants all across the country--another alumni of 
this particular high school shot down.
  Brian is one of 86 people across this country who are killed by guns 
every day--2,600 a month and 31,000 a year. Not every single one of 
these deaths is preventable. I don't know whether Brian Moore's was 
preventable. But what I know is that many of these deaths are 
preventable, that there has to be a reason why these numbers are so out 
of whack with every single other country in the industrialized world. A 
lot has to do with the reality of this place, that as these numbers 
continue to go up day after day, month after month, year after year at 
catastrophic levels, we do absolutely nothing about it.
  We have to start thinking about not just the cost to the families--
and it is not just the mother and the father and the brother and the 
sister. If we look at the pictures of Brian Moore's funeral, they are 
heartbreaking, seeing the tragedy that is washing over the family 
members.
  The average homicide by gun has 22 different victims who are affected 
by it. It often leads to cycles of violence in which there are killings 
for retribution, in which the trauma spirals lives of children and 
brothers and sisters downward.
  Let's look for a second at the cost of one murder. Here are some 
numbers overall. A recent study showed that the annual cost of gun 
violence in America is $229 billion with a ``b.'' That is $47 billion 
more than Apple's 2014 worldwide revenue. But here is the cost of just 
one murder--$441,000 in direct costs. Eighty-seven percent of it is 
paid for by taxpayers. It costs over $400,000 to lock up the 
perpetrator, $2,000 when he is charged and sentenced, $11,000 for 
mental health treatment for the victim's families, $10,000 for the 
victim's hospital expenses, $450 just to transport to the hospital, and 
then $2,000 for police response and investigations.
  That is not why we should take on the issue of gun violence in this 
country; we should do it simply to try to stop this scourge of murders. 
But if we care about being a good steward of the taxpayers' dollars, 
then $441,000 a year that could be saved just by eliminating one of the 
86 a day seems like a pretty good deal.
  Jose Araujo, from Milford, CT, was working for Burns Construction 
Company in Bridgeport when he was shot at his job on a construction 
site after a suspect asked for a job and he was referred to the company 
office. He started to head for the office, but then he turned around 
and shot Jose.
  A family friend said:

       He was a gentle giant. Wherever he walked in there was a 
     smile on his face. He always gave you a strong handshake.

  Another friend said:

       He's nice, generous and a man of peace.

  Jose's girlfriend said:

       He was such a great person and if the world had more people 
     like him--oh, what a beautiful world we would live in.

  Jose leaves behind a 5-year-old son.
  Sanjay Patel was killed on April 6 in New Haven, CT. He was just 
working, as millions of other Americans do, putting in his hours as a 
manager at a CITGO gas station, when he was shot four times by an 
apparent robber at the station. The perpetrators took money and store 
merchandise. Specifically, they stole a box of cigars. They killed this 
guy over a box of cigars.
  Sanjay's wife was 6 months pregnant at the time. He told her he 
didn't want her to work while she was pregnant, in part because she had 
been injured in a house fire last year. In a tearful interview, she 
said her husband took excellent care of her and the baby. He brought 
her ice cream and breakfast in bed. ``This is my first baby,'' she 
said, ``and my husband was so happy.''
  The stats are overwhelming, whether it be the number of people who 
are killed by guns or the cost to U.S. taxpayers. I try to come to the 
floor every couple of weeks just to give voice to the victims of gun 
violence, figuring that if the numbers don't move this place, maybe the 
stories of those who are lost will. I can only tell a few a

[[Page S2820]]

day, but, frankly, it would take me more time than we have here for 
debate on the floor to tell 86 stories every single day.
  This isn't just about the fact that I come from Newtown, CT; this is 
about the fact that there is a regular drumbeat of gun violence 
throughout this country. By doing nothing in the Senate and the House 
week after week, month after month, year after year, we effectively 
become complicit in these murders. We silently endorse this epidemic of 
gun violence when we don't even try to make gun trafficking illegal at 
a Federal level; when we don't stand with 90 percent of the American 
public and the vast majority of gun owners--80 to 90 percent--and 
simply say you shouldn't be able to get a gun if you are a criminal and 
you have to prove you are not a criminal before you get a gun; when we 
don't endorse simple gun safety technology to make sure the gun that 
was used to kill Officer Moore can't be used by someone who isn't its 
intended user, its owner, the technology developing--we could help; we 
could assist--that would cut down on stolen firearms that are used to 
kill and hurt people.
  I will keep coming down to the floor whatever chance I get to tell a 
handful of these tragic stories from Connecticut, to New York, to 
Chicago, to Los Angeles, giving voices to the victims of gun violence 
so that someday, somehow, the Senate will recognize that although we 
can't eliminate these numbers, although we can't bring them down to 
zero, with smart, commonsense legislation, we can make sure these 
numbers are much lower than they are today and that there is much less 
tragedy visited on American families and much less cost to American 
taxpayers.
  I yield back, Mr. President.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 15 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________