[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 158 (Tuesday, October 3, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6268-S6269]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Las Vegas Mass Shooting

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, the Nation continues to reel from 
the awful events of Sunday night in Las Vegas--the most deadly mass 
shooting in modern American history. It has gotten even deadlier in the 
last 24 hours, with 59 dead and 527 injured--some wounded by gunfire, 
some injured because they were trampled in the chaos. There were 22,000 
concertgoers who fled for their lives from the scene. The police found 
23 guns in the hotel room of the monster who committed this atrocity 
and 19 more at his home. Some of them had been modified to cause even 
more carnage.
  Of course, as always, the beauty of the American people and the first 
responders pulled through. I saw on TV today a man who had been shot. 
Two young women came and risked their lives while those shots were 
going. They took off his belt and tied a tourniquet around his upper 
thigh because he was bleeding profusely from his leg. They saved his 
life. He said he will never know who they are, but they saved his life. 
That story, I am sure, will be repeated over and over again. The valor, 
the bravery of the average American and the greatness of our first 
responders is the only counterpoint to the evil, the carnage, the 
horror we have all witnessed.
  We cannot banish evil or madness from the Earth, but we sure can do 
what we can in our power to make our country a safer place. We need 
commonsense reforms, and these reforms have broad public support.
  In the face of tens of thousands of gun deaths every year, too many 
Republicans in Congress have tried to enact the dream agenda of the NRA 
and the gun lobby. They have pursued a national concealed carry law. 
Can you imagine if that were to have passed? This horrible man could 
have concealed carry under the laws of Nevada and gone to Times Square 
in New York City or to Walt Disney World in Florida and just shot away.
  Most of our police organizations are against this concealed carry 
bill. In light of the carnage, in knowing of the evil that exists, with 
the power of evil magnified by guns and automatic weapons, how can we 
try to pursue it?
  What about gun silencers? There is a move actually in this Congress--
it is in the House right now, and I am sure it has support on the other 
side of the aisle in the Senate--to make it easier for citizens to 
acquire silencers. Why? Let me tell you something. One of the few ways 
the police had to go after the shooter was trying to hear the sound of 
where the guns were coming from.
  Thank God our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have pulled 
back on this bill. It is not the first time. They had to postpone a 
hearing on the bill when the congressional baseball team was attacked 
during an early morning practice. When two mass shootings force you to 
delay a bill that would make those mass shootings harder to detect and 
stop, maybe it is a sign that you ought to let go of the bill once and 
for all.
  Of course, we have this absurd NRA nostrum that if everyone were to 
have a gun, we would all be safe because if people were in an arena--a 
place--where someone was shooting, they could shoot them back. They 
sure could not have shot back at someone who was 32 stories up in a 
hotel. This idea that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun 
is a good guy with a gun is absurd in this situation. It is absurd in 
many situations.
  So where do we go from here?
  This place has been gridlocked on the issue of gun control for a 
while. President Trump, before he ran for office, was for certain sane, 
rational, limited aspects of gun control. After Sandy, he called for 
the gun laws to be tightened. I know when he ran, that the power of

[[Page S6269]]

the NRA, the money of the NRA, and the narrow special interest of the 
NRA lobbyists here were just the swamp he decried--small groups going 
against the public interest and persuading Congress to do that. Yet 
maybe he can have a bit of a reawakening, in the horror of what 
happened, as he goes to Las Vegas tomorrow.
  Today I am calling on the President to come out against the absurd 
law about silencers--to threaten a veto if he must and put an end to 
that bill. I am also calling on President Trump to bring together the 
leaders of Congress and let both sides know he is ready and willing to 
address head-on this issue of gun safety. He should tell Members of his 
party it is time to work to address this epidemic that costs the lives 
of more than 30,000 Americans a year.
  I am glad the President is going to Las Vegas--that is a good idea--
but he should take it a step further. He should call us together and 
lead this Nation in some rational laws about gun safety that the 
overwhelming majority of Americans--Democrats, Republicans, and 
Independents--support.
  If we truly want to honor our first responders and protect our fellow 
Americans, as we say we do, President Trump should stand up and tell 
the NRA that they are not always right, abandon some of their most 
extreme policies--I would abandon most of them--and come to the table 
and do the work that so many Americans are desperate for Congress to 
do.