[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 180 (Monday, November 6, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7006-S7008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Texas Church Mass shooting

  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise to speak about the mass 
shooting in Texas yesterday--the latest mass shooting in what seems 
like never-ending gun violence in our country. My heart breaks for the 
victims and their families and for the community of Sutherland Springs 
in Texas.
  We are still gathering all the facts about this specific crime. We 
are still learning about what happened, how this murderer was able to 
purchase a gun, whatever his twisted rationale was for walking into a 
house of worship in a small town and slaughtering more than 20 people, 
including young children, with an assault weapon. Our incredible law 
enforcement officials are working hard to answer all of that, but the 
most important fact of all is something we already know very well. This 
was yet another case where someone on American soil who had absolutely 
no business getting his hands on a weapon of war was able to get one 
and use it to commit heinous mass murder.

  Of the five worst mass shootings in our history, three of them have 
occurred in just the past 17 months. Think about that. In a small town 
in America, nearly 7 percent of the town's population was slaughtered 
just because they went to church that day. The weapon he used was based 
on a military weapon designed for a war zone, but this was not a war 
zone. It was a church. People were singing and praying and savoring 
life.
  I reject the notion that it is too soon to act. If not now, then 
when? We should ban assault weapons and bump stocks today. People who 
don't want to have an honest conversation say we need to wait. Well, 
for how long? Because we wait, and we wait, and we will see evil rear 
its ugly head over and over again, and we are told to wait again.
  We have enough information today for Congress to do its job and try 
to keep our constituents safe from gun violence. We had enough 
information before yesterday to act, but what Congress does not have is 
the political will to act. My friends, this must change. Thoughts and 
prayers are not going to stop the next mass shooting. Merely talking 
about doing something about the mentally ill obtaining guns isn't going 
to stop the next deranged person with hate in their soul from 
committing yet another mass murder. The Second Amendment does not mean 
that Americans should have to risk getting shot because they walked 
down the wrong street in a city or decided to go to a music festival in 
Las Vegas or a night club in Orlando or an elementary school in Newtown 
or a movie theater in Aurora or a church on Sunday in Texas.
  After each of these horrific acts of violence, what happened here in 
Congress? Nothing. More than a month after Las Vegas, we still can't 
even tackle the most obvious fixes like banning bump stocks. Plain and 
simple, Americans are being slaughtered and Congress is refusing to 
protect them.
  I hear my colleagues who rightly say we can't pass laws to stop every 
instance of a deranged gunman who wants to kill innocent men, women, 
and children, just like our other criminal laws will not necessarily 
stop every instance of crime, but there is no excuse for not even 
trying. Everyone in this Chamber knows that a shooting in a church is 
something that should never happen in this country. Mr. President, I 
think you would agree with that. I think everyone who serves in this 
Chamber would agree with that. So then why aren't we doing anything to 
stop this violence? Why aren't we making it harder for a crazed, evil 
person to get their hands on a weapon of war?
  It makes me wonder what our colleagues are waiting for. Are they 
waiting for the NRA to come in and give them cover and tell them it is 
OK to act? Are they waiting for the NRA to give them permission to 
stand up and do something? If the NRA said today assault rifles or bump 
stocks should be banned, it would be done tomorrow. That is the sad 
truth of this place, but we know the NRA will not say that because they 
want to keep selling these weapons of war to anyone who is willing to 
buy them, no matter how unsafe it makes it for the rest of us.
  Congress has caved in over and over again to the enormous pressure by 
the NRA and the gun industry--which just wants to protect their 
profits--and has ignored the vast majority of Americans. Gun owners and 
nongun owners alike support commonsense measures to keep their fellow 
Americans safe.
  These mass slaughters continue, and Congress has done nothing--
absolutely nothing. To me, this is a monumental failure of leadership, 
and it is no wonder that gun violence and mass shootings happen here at 
a higher rate than any other developed country in the world. This has 
to change. It is not enough to solve the individual crime after the 
fact. We have to take meaningful, real action to prevent the next one. 
This is what has to happen. To those who doubt that Congress can 
actually get something done, we already know that, depending on the 
motivation, depending on whom Congress is actually listening to, 
Congress is fully capable of moving quickly to enact change. Instead of 
acting like its hands are tied and refusing to do anything--which is 
what is happening right now--far more often than not, Congress listens 
to the special interests instead of the people who actually elect them 
to keep them safe.
  Look at the shameful state of our gun laws now and tell me if you 
think these laws came about because families in our States demanded 
them or was it because the NRA demanded them? Congress has turned a 
collective back on strengthening and expanding our national background 
check system. We should be fixing the holes in the system--whatever is 
necessary--not just

[[Page S7007]]

shrugging our shoulders and saying there is nothing that can be done. 
Who do you think demanded that we don't fix the background check 
system? Was it families in your State or was it the NRA? Congress 
refuses to ban high-capacity magazines, which are literally made for 
war, and let killers fire dozens of rounds without having to stop and 
reload. Who do you think demanded that, families or the NRA?
  Congress still refuses to ban assault weapons, which are designed for 
war--designed to kill as many people as possible as rapidly as possible 
but are given different names so they can be sold in the civilian 
world. Who do you think demanded that, our families or the NRA?
  Congress is on the verge of passing legislation to make it easier 
right now for killers to buy suppressers, known by many of us as 
silencers, to attach to their weapons and make it harder for the police 
to do their jobs and catch violent criminals. Who do you think demanded 
that? Certainly not the police and not our families--the NRA.
  Congress is dragging its feet on banning bump stocks, the inexpensive 
piece of equipment the killer in Las Vegas used to turn its already-
powerful firearm into an automatic weapon capable of firing hundreds of 
rounds per minute. Who do you think demanded that, families or the NRA?
  Just this February, Congress overturned a rule that had prevented 
people who were so incapacitated that they could no longer handle their 
own finances from getting their hands on a gun. Who do you think 
demanded that, families or the NRA?
  Congress even went so far as to pass a law that blocked the Centers 
for Disease Control from studying the issue of gun deaths the way they 
are allowed to study any other cause of death in this country. Why? 
Because it is an attempt to hide the overwhelming data showing that 
keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people would decrease gun 
crime. Who do you think demanded that? Who do you think demanded that 
Congress suppress the facts and the alarming data about gun violence? 
Do you think it was families or the NRA?
  This really has to change. Congress needs to start protecting the 
people we were elected to represent. Their voices matter, and it really 
does matter whom you are listening to. Their voices matter, and they 
must be heard. We must listen and enact change that would actually help 
to keep our States safer from gun violence. We are the ones who need to 
act. We can't ignore our responsibility to keep our country safe from 
this kind of violence.
  To all the people who are watching us right now, I would say this: 
After all these massacres, pay attention to what your elected leaders 
are saying. Pay attention to what they are actually doing. Watch how 
they react. Look closely at how they use their time here. Listen to 
what they say or don't say. After these mass shootings, did they tell 
you we were going to bow our heads for a moment of silence and leave it 
there or did they tell you we were going to fight with every bit of 
energy to actually fix these broken gun laws and protect our American 
citizens?
  Democracy only works when regular people stand up and demand action. 
I urge everyone listening today to demand that action and to hold 
elected leaders accountable and to ask them to pass meaningful gun 
reform now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, today we join the stunned community of 
Sutherland Springs, TX--a small town near San Antonio--in mourning the 
loss of too many innocent lives. One innocent life is too many.
  I listened to the impassioned comments of our colleague from New York 
asking us to do something, but I actually think it is important we 
understand exactly what did happen, and once the fog of this terrible 
tragic event lifts, after the law enforcement agencies can do the 
appropriate investigation, then I think it is appropriate for us to 
ask: What can we do, consistent with the Constitution and laws of the 
United States--what can we do to make something like this less likely?
  I wish I was optimistic there was some magic wand we could wave and 
that we could prevent terrible tragedies like this, but in a free and 
open society, unfortunately, we don't have that magic wand.
  On the other hand, we have arrived at a consensus, I think, in this 
country, that background checks, for example, are appropriate for 
people suffering from mental illness, people who committed previous 
felonies. Those people are banned from possessing or purchasing 
firearms, and there is a consensus that they should be banned.
  There are some early reports--and, again, the fog of this terrible 
tragedy has not yet lifted. We need clarity in order to know what did 
and did not happen and where we might be able to act to make a 
difference. There is some indication by some news reports that this 
individual had committed domestic violence and had been convicted of 
that by a court-martial. That, too, would likely have been a 
disqualifying factor in his ability to possess or purchase firearms. So 
we need to know exactly what the facts are.
  I appreciate the passion of our colleague from New York. We are all 
stunned by what happened, but I think being rational people, we ought 
to want to know exactly what the facts are before we decide what the 
best course of action might be. It may be that, like we saw a few years 
back at Virginia Tech, an individual who had previously been 
adjudicated mentally ill, that determination, that judgment was not 
entered into the National Instant Background Checks System run by the 
FBI, and because it wasn't--because of a failure of communication 
between the State and Federal authorities--he was able to purchase a 
firearm when he was legally disqualified from being able to do so.
  So those are the sorts of things I think we could work together on. I 
know, for example, after the terrible shooting in Las Vegas, I was 
shocked, like so many others were, that somebody could essentially 
bypass the prohibition against making a semiautomatic weapon into an 
automatic weapon by the use of the so-called bump stock. As somebody 
who enjoys the outdoors and is a hunter and enjoys recreational 
shooting, I can tell you I know of no sportsman, no hunter, who uses a 
bump stock. It seems to me the sole purpose of this is to bypass the 
prohibition about turning semiautomatic weapons into automatic weapons. 
That is something I hope the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue 
to look into and determine whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and 
Firearms ought to be extended the authority to regulate the so-called 
bump stocks.
  Back when President Obama was President of the United States, the 
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms said they did not believe they 
had the authority, but several of us have written to them and asked 
them to clarify for us just where they think they do have authority and 
where they feel they need additional authority so we can work with 
them, hopefully, to prevent terrible tragedies like that from occurring 
in the future.
  Yesterday we all received the news that a gunman opened fire on 
parishioners at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX, killing 
at least 26 people during the Sunday morning church service. I can't 
imagine a more vulnerable time. People were sitting in the pews with 
their heads bowed and their eyes closed and then were exposed to this 
madman unleashing death in that house of worship. The victims included 
young children and a pregnant woman, among others. All 26 of them are 
now gone, aged 18 months to 72 years old.
  This small community and an entire Nation must now bind its wounds as 
we mourn the dead and meet the face of evil with moral clarity and a 
newfound determination to stem the violence that continues to plague 
the United States of the America.
  We saw in New York that somebody used a vehicle--a car--to mow down 
people and to kill people as an act of terrorism.
  We are vulnerable in so many ways because we are an open society. 
Unfortunately, these sorts of tragedies seem to come back to us time 
and again, and we in Texas are not immune.
  We remember the knife attack at the University of Texas in Austin 
earlier this year. We remember the shooting of police officers in 
downtown Dallas last year, where five police officers perished, and at 
Fort Hood in 2009. Each of

[[Page S7008]]

these events has been shocking, inexplicable, and, certainly, 
reprehensible.
  This tragedy may be the worst of all. That this event occurred in a 
house of worship makes it all the more grotesque and despicable. Hymns 
of praise were silenced, and those led to cries for help.
  The shooting in Sutherland Springs has been called the deadliest mass 
shooting in Texas history. It is perhaps better understood by the words 
of one man whose mother and father were both killed yesterday. He was 
sitting on the curb, outside the emergency room, at Connally Memorial 
Medical Center in Floresville, a town nearby. Shaken to the core, he 
called the events of yesterday ``unimaginable.'' It is impossible to 
comprehend what it must have felt like to wake up this morning in 
Sutherland Springs--a small, tight-knit, rural community that is 
roughly 35 miles southeast of San Antonio--with so many neighbors lost 
and the sound of yesterday's gunfire and sirens still ringing in the 
air.
  One of the people who lost her life was Crystal Holcombe, who died 
with her unborn child and several relatives. Another was Annabelle 
Pomeroy, a shy 14-year-old girl, whose uncle describes her as an 
``angel in the flesh.''
  We know, thankfully, that two Good Samaritans turned on and pursued 
the shooter and may have prevented this nightmare from lasting even 
longer. We are grateful for the heroism and the quick decisive action 
of these two men. We know that about 20 injured remain in hospitals, 
including a 5-year-old, Ryland Ward, who was shot multiple times.
  Yesterday I spoke with Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Wilson County 
Sheriff Joe Tackitt, Jr., and offered not only my condolences but my 
unequivocal and complete support. Sheriff Tackitt said that the bloody 
scene inside First Baptist was horrific, but that the response to the 
tragedy was instantaneous. First responders from the surrounding area, 
as well as State and Federal officials, inundated Sutherland Springs 
with logistical resources and personnel, offering their love and 
compassion, as well--a proud display of what I often see, which is an 
attitude that being a Texan doesn't describe just where you are from. 
It describes who your family is.
  Today I join the sheriff, as well as Governor Abbott, and my friend 
Representative Henry Cuellar, in whose congressional district this 
tragedy occurred, my colleague in the Senate, Senator Cruz, and so many 
other Texans in asking God for healing and for understanding.
  We know the investigation into exactly what happened and why is 
ongoing, and it is important that we allow this investigation to be 
completed so we can know what happened and exactly what we might be 
able to do to prevent tragedies like this from occurring in the future.
  I hope that Texans who call Sutherland Springs and First Baptist 
Church home will soon have some answers. I send my thoughts and prayers 
to those who lost parents, children, friends, and relatives in this 
outrageous and inhuman act. I hope each of us will pledge to be a light 
in the darkness. To the families whose lives are forever changed by 
this atrocity, let us provide a strong shoulder of support.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Ernst). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  (The remarks of Ms. Collins and Ms. Cortez Masto pertaining to the 
introduction of S. 2076 are printed in today's Record under 
``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. I yield the floor.
  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. DAINES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.