[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 34 (Monday, February 26, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1203-S1204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, in the wake of the horrific shootings at 
Stoneman Douglas High School, the deadliest school shooting since Sandy 
Hook, there has been a broad national conversation about the epidemic 
of gun violence in this country. It is being led

[[Page S1204]]

by a group of brave high school students, the friends and classmates of 
the fallen, whom I will be sitting down with tomorrow. Their passion 
and eloquence have been a moral course for change.
  Thank God for these students. They are urging us now to have a debate 
in Congress about something very straightforward: What can we do to 
stop very dangerous guns from getting into the hands of very dangerous 
people? How can we keep Americans safe at our movie theaters, at night 
clubs, at concerts and churches, and above all, at our schools?
  We need to get something real and significant accomplished. The 
problem of gun violence in this country is too immediate for another 
delay, too severe for half measures.
  President Trump has been talking about comprehensive background 
checks. We are glad to hear that. We are glad that folks are finally 
starting to talk about the real issues of gun safety again. Democrats 
believe that, at the very least, in the wake of Parkland, we should 
strive for comprehensive background checks--closing the loopholes that 
allow anyone, regardless of a violent history or a history of mental 
illness, to walk into a gun show or go on the internet and purchase a 
gun. More than 90 percent of Americans and the vast majority of gun 
owners support comprehensive background checks. What are we waiting 
for?
  There seems to be a discussion about a more limited proposal, the Fix 
NICS bill, sponsored by Senators Cornyn and Murphy, which improves the 
existing background check system in a few ways. I support the bill and 
I am a cosponsor, but the Fix NICS bill is not what President Trump has 
been talking about this afternoon and at other times when he says 
``comprehensive background checks.'' Fix NICS was written to address 
one specific issue that was brought to light after the horrific 
shooting in a church in Sutherland Springs, TX. It is a proposal to 
address that specific problem, but it leaves unaddressed a host of 
crucial gun safety issues, including, and especially, the loopholes in 
our background check system. If we only pass Fix NICS, we will be right 
back here after the next shooting in nearly the same place. If all 
Congress does in response to the Parkland shooting is to pass Fix NICS, 
we will not be doing our job. We must do much more than that.
  This week, the Democratic caucus will discuss what policies we 
believe will most effectively curb the uniquely American epidemic of 
gun violence. We will propose them and work with our Republican 
colleagues to perfect and, hopefully, enact them. I sincerely believe 
we can make progress even on an issue as fraught as this one, but it 
will require our Republican friends to break free from the iron grip of 
the NRA.
  Our Republican friends face a simple choice: Do something real on 
guns or please the NRA. Doing both is impossible.
  The NRA's No. 1 goal is to make sure nothing meaningful on gun safety 
ever happens. When there are national issues, when there are horrible 
shootings, they make a feint as if they might try to do something, but 
then they pull right back because they want nothing to be done.
  As an example, after the shooting in Las Vegas, Senators tried to do 
something here in the Senate about bump stocks, the modification that 
allowed the perpetrator to automatically fire his arsenal of assault 
weapons. The NRA and many Republicans said that they would be willing 
to work on it, but then what? The NRA pushed the weakest possible 
measure--a simple review of the issue by the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco, and Firearms, which had already said that they couldn't do 
anything about the bill. And then what happened? Nothing.
  Now the NRA has pushed the House Republicans to attach the Fix NICS 
bill--the Cornyn-Murphy bill, a very modest improvement focused on one 
issue that happened in Texas, but it was not relevant to what happened 
here in Parkland. They tried to attach that to the NRA's No. 1 
legislative priority, concealed carry reciprocity, a bill that 
undermines our existing gun laws, defeating the entire purpose of the 
legislation.
  Even when it comes to the most modest improvements to gun safety 
laws, the NRA always finds a way to stand in the way of progress. If we 
are going to get something significant done to keep our schools and our 
kids safe from gun violence, for the first time in a very long time, 
President Trump and congressional Republicans will have to buck the 
NRA.

  It is our hope that Republican leaders will work with us in a 
bipartisan way to pass legislation that makes a real difference--not 
half measures, not baby steps, and certainly not attaching good 
legislation to legislation that would make the overall problem even 
worse.
  We hope Republicans will work with us to pass serious changes to our 
gun laws, whether the NRA supports them or not. That is the only way we 
will make progress on an issue that has frustrated Congress and the 
vast majority of the American people for far too long.

                          ____________________