[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 172 (Monday, November 30, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S8188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, having just finished the Thanksgiving 
holiday season, many of us had a chance to be with our families and 
give thanks for all of the great goodness we have had showered on us as 
individuals and those lucky enough to live in this great Nation, but 
for many families this was a painful holiday weekend. It is sobering to 
realize how many American families have their lives impacted by gun 
violence in America every single day. Sadly, the past holiday weekend 
was no exception.
  In my home State of Illinois, in the city of Chicago, gun violence 
has taken a devastating toll. There have been 436 homicides in Chicago 
this year--most of them by gunfire. In Chicago, the news this morning 
was that 8 people were killed and at least 20 others were wounded in 
shootings over the holiday weekend. Today the University of Chicago has 
closed its campus in Hyde Park because of a shooting threat that was 
made against the campus community. Classes and activities are canceled. 
Extra security has been provided. At a high school in Barrington, IL, 
in the suburbs of Chicago, students saw a lockdown after a student came 
to school with a gun and was arrested.
  The fact is, there is too much gun violence in America. All across 
the country we have seen such terrible stories.
  On Friday, in Biloxi, MS, a patron at a Waffle House restaurant shot 
and killed Julia Brightwell, a waitress, after she asked him not to 
smoke in the restaurant.
  In Atlanta, on Saturday, 6-year-old Ja'Mecca Smith found a loaded 
handgun in the cushions of a sofa and fatally shot herself--6 years 
old.
  In Rome, NY, a 7-month-old infant was shot and killed on Saturday 
when a nearby 18-year-old was cleaning and loading a shotgun that was 
discharged.
  In Colorado Springs, CO, a gunman burst into a Planned Parenthood 
building and killed three people, including police officer Garrett 
Swasey, and wounded nine others. The Governor of Colorado called this 
domestic terrorism, and I agree.
  An average of 297 Americans are shot every day, 89 of them fatally. 
They are shot in homicides, assaults, suicides, accidental shootings, 
mass shootings, and even domestic terrorism attacks like the one we 
just witnessed at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. By 
one count, there have been at least 351 mass shootings in America so 
far this year--that is more than one every single day--and there have 
been more than 50 shootings in American schools so far this year. There 
are some people who think that the Founding Fathers, when they 
envisioned the future of America, envisioned an armed America with 
absolute, inviolate gun rights. I don't believe it. I don't believe for 
a minute they had any vision of this level of wanton violence which is 
taking place.
  Several weeks ago, I joined with my Senate Democratic colleagues. We 
went to the steps of the Capitol and called on the Republican majority 
in the Senate to do something. We urged Republicans to consider calling 
on the floor of the Senate--in light of all of this gun violence--
commonsense reforms that would keep guns out of the hands of dangerous 
people.
  Whether or not you own a gun, whether or not you hunt, whatever your 
view is of the Constitution, can't we all basically agree that people 
who have been convicted of a felony and those who are mentally unstable 
should not be allowed to buy a gun? That, to me, is just common sense. 
There are many people in my own family who are sportsmen and hunters 
and enjoy the firearms they bought as kids and went hunting with their 
dads and really appreciate it. It is part of the Midwestern culture. I 
have yet to meet a single person who owns a gun and uses it responsibly 
who doesn't agree with the statement that we should keep guns out of 
the hands of convicted felons and also out of the hands of those who 
are mentally unstable.
  It is also hard to imagine why there is opposition to this issue. Did 
you know that even if you are on the government's terrorist watch 
list--a person who is suspected of terrorism--you can legally buy a gun 
in America? I am not talking about gun show loopholes, where there are 
no questions asked; I am talking about the law in America which allows 
suspected terrorists to buy firearms. In light of what happened in 
Paris, France, does it make sense that someone on the terrorist watch 
list can buy an assault weapon? God only knows where they would take it 
or what they would do with it and ultimately how many innocent people 
would be killed. We can't even have a conversation about that on the 
floor of the U.S. Senate. No way. The National Rifle Association would 
not approve. The gun lobby does not want us discussing these issues. We 
are talking about a Second Amendment absolute, inviolate right, in 
their eyes, and I think we are talking about something that is 
impossible to explain and defend, from my point of view.
  I will stand up for Second Amendment rights--the rights of people to 
own and use guns responsibly and store them safely away from children. 
I will stand up for their rights, but we also have to come together and 
acknowledge that those who would misuse firearms because they have a 
criminal intent, with a criminal record, are mentally unstable, or are 
on a suspected terrorist watch list--for goodness' sake, we ought to be 
able to draw that line in the United States of America.

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