[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 34 (Monday, February 26, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1206-S1208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Parkland, Florida, School Shooting

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that I bring a 
report to the Senate from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 
Parkland, FL, a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale. The teachers and staff of the 
school returned to work today, which is less than 2 weeks after a 
former student walked on to the campus with an AR-15 and opened fire on 
all three floors of a classroom building.

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  I have spent time the past couple of weeks in Parkland, visiting with 
some of the families. Those of us who are parents can only imagine the 
grief and anger that they are feeling, just like the grief and anger 
after every one of these massacres. I have also spent time meeting with 
some of the courageous students who have turned this tragedy into a 
call for action. As I have suggested to them, their hope gives me hope. 
Their determination gives me all the more determination. These students 
have told us over and over that they don't plan to stop until Congress 
and the State legislators around the country start enacting commonsense 
gun reform. They have said that they are not going to stop, and neither 
am I.
  What happened at that high school shouldn't happen anywhere in this 
country. It shouldn't have happened in Columbine. It shouldn't have 
happened in Newtown. It shouldn't have happened in Orlando. It 
shouldn't have happened at the Ft. Lauderdale airport or Parkland. It 
shouldn't happen, period. Now it is up to us to make sure that it never 
happens again.
  This Senator grew up on a ranch. I have always had guns. I have 
hunted all my life. I still hunt with my son. An AR-15 or a SIG Sauer 
MCX, the gun that was used at the Pulse nightclub, is not for hunting; 
they are for killing. Yet, despite these horrific events, these 
devastating tragedies are occurring throughout our country over and 
over, and Congress refuses to act. Why is it that we can't enact the 
most commonsense measures to protect the people we represent?
  We need a comprehensive background check on the purchase of a weapon, 
a commonsense background check that would not only include if there is 
a criminal record or if someone has been adjudicated mentally 
incompetent but all the other myriad reasons, all the other things 
surrounding mental health. Was the shooter on the terrorist watch list? 
Had Omar Mateen, the shooter, been on the terrorist watch list, he 
would have been caught. He was the shooter in Orlando. We need to get 
assault rifles off the streets.
  Protecting our fellow citizens should be a top priority. If making it 
more difficult for someone to walk into a store and purchase a weapon 
of war will do that, why can't we get that done? Why? I will tell you 
why. Because there are folks who are more concerned about an A-plus 
rating from the NRA than they are about providing those commonsense 
solutions to the problems.
  I want to read something that appeared in a national magazine, 
reprinted in the paper that is published in Broward County, where the 
shooting occurred. It is from a radiologist who is in the trauma center 
at Broward Health, which is a hospital chain organization in the area 
of Broward County. Her name is Dr. Heather Sher. She was working the 
day of the school shooting, and she went to work in the trauma center 
on some of the victims. She has treated countless gunshot wounds in 
trauma centers throughout her career, but this one was the second time 
that she had treated someone shot by an assault rifle like the AR-15. 
Here is what Dr. Sher had to say:

       Routine handgun injuries leave entry and exit wounds and 
     linear tracks through the victim's body that are roughly the 
     size of the bullet. If the bullet [from a handgun] does not 
     directly hit something crucial like the heart or the aorta . 
     . . chances are, we can save the victim. The bullets fired by 
     an AR-15 are different.

  She continues:

       With an AR-15, the shooter does not have to be particularly 
     accurate. The victim does not have to be unlucky. If a victim 
     takes a direct hit to the liver from an AR-15, the damage is 
     far graver than that of a handgun bullet injury. Handgun 
     injuries to the liver are generally survivable unless the 
     bullet hits the main blood supply to the liver. An AR-15 
     bullet to the middle of the liver would cause so much 
     bleeding and tissue loss that the patient would likely never 
     make it to a trauma center to receive our care.

  She continues:

       As a doctor, I feel I have a duty to inform the public of 
     what I have learned as I have observed these wounds and cared 
     for these patients. It's clear to me that AR-15 or other 
     high-velocity weapons, especially when outfitted with a high-
     capacity magazine, have no place in a civilian's gun cabinet. 
     . . . Banning the AR-15 should not be a partisan issue.

  The senseless shootings are not going to stop until we change 
ourselves as a culture. I believe, with these students who have been so 
strong in their statements, so determined to make a change, that time 
might be now. It didn't happen after Sandy Hook Elementary. Nothing 
happened. It didn't happen after the myriad of others. It didn't happen 
just 2 years ago after the Orlando nightclub shooting. Again, it did 
not happen after the Ft. Lauderdale airport shooting.
  Is it different now? It certainly is time for us to come together and 
enact commonsense gun measures to keep our communities safe. It is time 
for us to come together--not as Republicans or Democrats but as human 
beings--and to say that this time it is going to be different.
  You hear so many different things. You hear about mental health, and 
that is certainly a part of it. You hear about school protection, and 
that is certainly a part of it. You hear about the miscues not only in 
the FBI, and that is certainly a part of it, but the miscues in the 
Florida Department of Children and Families a year prior that had noted 
that this shooter--all of those things ought to be a part of the 
solution. If you get right down to it, we ought to come together, not 
as Republicans or Democrats but as human beings, and say that if we 
want to solve the problem, the solution is commonsense background 
checks in order to purchase a weapon and getting assault rifles off the 
streets.
  Let's do this. Let's use this tragedy as the catalyst to enact real 
change in our society--changes that are going to have a real impact. 
Let's make what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a 
significant moment in this country's history, not because it was one of 
the largest mass shootings but because it was the last.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I wish to ask that before the remarks 
that I plan to make now are made and memorialized by the reporter, I be 
able to say to my friend from Florida, on behalf of the people of 
Georgia, who stopped me in the halls and corridors, at the grocery 
stores, the churches--everywhere we went--what happened in Florida was 
an attack everywhere in America, not just in Florida. The tragedy of 
school shootings has magnified itself, so much so that every one of us 
feels it more than anybody realizes.
  I want to share with you the prayers, the hopes, and concern of the 
people of Georgia. It is a pleasure to work together with you and the 
other Members of the Senate so that we can find common ground as we 
move forward to address this situation. Having just been home, and 
being with the citizens I represent, I can say that the first and 
foremost item on the minds of every citizen of Georgia is the tragedy 
that took place in Florida. Our hearts and prayers go out to you and 
all the families and all those who survived the terrible tragedy.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I say to my friend from Georgia: 
Hallelujah that you have expressed that heartfelt concern and that your 
constituents in the State of Georgia have been very emotionally touched 
by this whole incident, this terrible incident that we have gone 
through again in this country. I am grateful for the comments of the 
Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. I thank the Senator from Florida.
  Mr. President, I rise today with a great sense of pride and honor to 
commend to my fellow Senators Elizabeth ``Lisa'' Branch, who has been 
nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit of the 
United States of America by President Trump.
  There are significant reasons why I am so excited to do this. I am 
going to save the most significant for last. One of the things I am so 
proud of in our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent for 
the appointments of the administration is that, every time, we appoint 
someone who is the right person at the right time and the right place, 
and Lisa is certainly that for the court of appeals and for the bench 
of the United States of America and the Eleventh Circuit.
  Lisa was a partner in the commercial litigation practice of Smith, 
Gambrell & Russell, a limited liability partnership in Atlanta, where 
she began her legal career in 1996. She moved on to work in the George 
W. Bush administration from 2004 to 2008 as the Counselor to the 
Administrator of the Office

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of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U.S. Office of Management 
and Budget and, for 1 year, as the Associate General Counsel for Rules 
and Legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She served 
for 2 years as a law clerk to Judge J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. 
District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She received her 
BA degree from Davidson College in North Carolina--an outstanding 
institution--and her law degree from Emory University, which is one of 
the most renowned law schools in the United States of America.

  She is a great lady and a great lawyer. She was named to the Court of 
Appeals in Georgia by Gov. Nathan Deal, the current Governor of the 
State, and will serve us in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals with 
honor and privilege in the United States of America.
  Most importantly, on a personal note, as I make these remarks, I am 
sure my father, Ed Isakson, and his best friend, Harold Russell, who is 
the Russell of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, are looking down from Heaven 
on this occasion today and recognizing it for the following reason:
  When Lisa went with Smith, Gambrell & Russell, she went to work with 
a firm that represented my father and his company--a firm that 
represented me. She is not unknown to me as a person, as a lawyer, as a 
litigator. She is a great individual in our State and has provided a 
great service to our State. She will be a great judge for the United 
States of America. She also worked with Harold Russell, who was my 
dad's best friend, and Harold represented my father for years in 
business.
  I know today, in Heaven, they are looking down during this special 
occasion of an outstanding Georgia jurist who is renowned in our State 
and is about to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be on the Court of 
Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
  I commend to my colleagues in the Senate Elizabeth ``Lisa'' Branch to 
be confirmed, and I urge their favorable votes to see to it that takes 
place.
  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.
  Mr. ISAKSON. 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. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I yield back all time on our side and ask 
unanimous consent that the cloture motion be voted on.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.