[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1275-S1279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Gun Violence

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon--and I know I will be 
joined by a number of my colleagues on the floor--to talk about gun 
violence and to talk about what happened most recently and tragically 
in the State of Florida. I hope we can cover a number of aspects of 
this challenge, but I wanted to start with the victims who were killed 
at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14. I will make 
reference to the individuals more specifically a little later, but we 
are remembering them today. We are thinking of their families and 
certainly thinking as well of the surviving students.
  We are praying for the families, the victims, and the survivors. I 
can't imagine what these families are dealing with right now just days 
after this tragedy. There are a lot of ways to express grief, a lot of 
ways to somehow articulate the loss. I can't do it adequately, so I 
will turn to, in this case, a songwriter, recording artist Bruce 
Springsteen. We all know a good bit of his music, but years ago, after 
9/11, he wrote the lyrics to a song which was entitled, ``You're 
Missing.'' Of course, it has application for those who have loved and 
lost, especially in this instance, so tragically.
  Bruce Springsteen's words go, in part, like this, and the refrain of 
the song is ``You're missing.'' At one point he says:

       You're missing when I shut out the lights
       You're missing, when I close my eyes
       You're missing, when I see the sun rise

  He is giving us a sense of the loss--all day, every day, all night, 
every night--for that family member. He was speaking and reflecting 
upon the losses of
9/11, but anyone who has lost a loved one, especially this way--in this 
case, victims of murder in the school--must be thinking the same about 
what is missing in their lives and who is missing in their life, 
whether it is a son, a daughter, or another loved one.
  Gun violence in our country is all too common. It is almost hard to 
comprehend how common it has become, and unfortunately it is all too 
common not just for our country but especially for the younger 
generation. I will not provide lines of demarcation, but a lot of young 
people have known little else in their young lives but reading about or 
seeing on television stories about gun violence or being in the midst 
of an act of gun violence. At least hundreds of Americans have been in 
schools that have been the site of gun violence in the last 20 years or 
so.

  What we ought to do here is, in addition to giving speeches and 
pointing out where we should go--that is helpful, I guess, but the most 
important thing the Senate can do is to debate and vote. It would be 
ideal if we would debate one bill and then vote on it, then have 
another debate on another bill and vote on that, and do that again and 
again and see where we end up. I think most people here would be 
willing to do that even if we knew the result, even if you could prove 
to us that this particular measure will not pass or this one will be 
close or that one might pass. Whatever the circumstance, we should 
debate this issue. This institution is supposed to be all about open 
debate on the issues of the day. That is what I think that not only 
young people across the country but people of all ages are expecting of 
us. They expect us to debate and vote and keep trying to pass a measure 
that might reduce or maybe even substantially reduce the likelihood of 
further gun violence in schools and all other kinds of places in our 
society.
  Of course, we are thinking particularly about schools, where students 
should have a reasonable but sometimes cannot be sure of a reasonable 
expectation of security. I can't imagine this as a student. In all the 
years I was in school, we never even thought about this as a reality in 
our lives. People my age probably never thought about it for 1 minute. 
People who grew up in the 1960s or 1970s or 1980s never thought about 
this. It is only in the last generation or so that students have had to 
worry about and think about and unfortunately, for some, experience 
this kind of violence.
  I was a teacher for 1 year. I was a volunteer in North Philadelphia 
in a fifth grade classroom. I only taught for a year and knew I would 
only be teaching for a year of volunteer work, but I never thought 
about this. I can't imagine what I would do even if I had some training 
in law enforcement. Even if I had some training in how to handle a 
weapon, I can't imagine having to defend a classroom against this kind 
of killer with a high-powered weapon, where he can shoot bullets, one 
after another, into a classroom. I can't even imagine, and most people 
can't imagine.
  Schools are supposed to be places of teaching, of learning, of 
friendship, of competition, and of engagement with all kinds of 
activities in a school. Of course, schools are supposed to be places of 
growth, where young people start high school or grade school--high 
school for 4 years, grade school for longer--come through that, and 
grow into the kind of person their families hope they will be. Schools 
should not be places of fear and trepidation and uncertainty about what 
might happen in that school. This is not a common thought that students 
in years past had, that they would go to school and not be safe, that 
they would go to school and potentially not come home.
  What has been heartening and inspiring in the aftermath of this 
tragedy is what young people have done in Parkland in the State of 
Florida and, frankly, throughout the country. The other day, one of my 
colleagues said something that made a lot of sense. My colleague made 
the statement that the Senate is not where the focus of attention is. 
This Senator said that the focus of attention is on these young people. 
They are leading. In this case, Congress might have to follow, but we 
should follow them. They are leading on this. They are showing us the 
way. Young people are charting a new course on this issue, and they are 
not going away. They are going to be voting for 50 more years or 
longer. They are not going away, and this issue won't go away. They are 
leading us, and we should follow them. They and their families expect 
us to act. That means debating and voting. It doesn't just mean giving 
speeches or expressing condolence.
  Many of us were moved and inspired by their leadership, and we 
continue to be so inspired. Many of us were moved to tears and 
outpourings of emotion on all of these tragedies. I will never forget 
what I was thinking and responding to when it came to the Newtown 
massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. That, for me, was a seminal 
moment in my life in the Senate. That tragedy informed how I would vote 
going forward. That tragedy moved me to take a different approach to 
these issues and, frankly, to vote a different way.
  Starting in 2012 and 2013, in the aftermath of that tragedy, the one 
question I had to ask myself at the time--and I think we are still 
asking ourselves tragedy after tragedy--is there no action Congress can 
take that will substantially reduce the likelihood of gun violence in a 
school? Is there no action

[[Page S1276]]

that the most powerful country in the history of the human race can 
take to reduce this likelihood? If our answer is no, then I guess that 
is the way some will vote, and they will move on to other issues. I 
don't think many Americans believe that. I think most Americans believe 
there are actions we can take. It won't be one bill or one amendment or 
one vote, but there are a series of steps we can take over time, and it 
will take too much time, but we have to start now to consider, debate, 
and vote on a number of measures.
  I want to turn to my colleagues in just a moment.
  In the time after the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy, I was, as many 
of us were, reading about these young children and the horror in that 
classroom. I happened to tear out a newspaper page from the Wall Street 
Journal. These were printed in all kinds of newspapers across the 
country. You can't see it from a distance, but it is a yellowed copy of 
that page. It is from the Wall Street Journal dated December 17, 2012, 
page A6. The inscription above it is ``Shattered Lives.'' It has 
pictures of the students and pictures of their teachers and others in 
the school as well. They were all victims of gun violence. I won't go 
through the stories, but these are powerful stories of their lives. We 
have to ask ourselves, in the aftermath of that kind of a tragedy--just 
like the most recent tragedy--are we going to celebrate their lives and 
tell the world how much they contributed to the life of America but 
then in the same breath say: But we have to move on to another issue. I 
don't think that is an American approach. I don't think that is the 
approach of a great nation, of a great people.
  When we are at our best, we tackle problems. We know it will take a 
long time. We know it will take a number of votes and a number of 
actions. But we have to begin. I think we should begin.
  In this instance, I am not going to go through all the names or all 
the names from every tragedy, of course, but let me read just the first 
names of the victims in Parkland. I know the senior Senator from 
Florida, because of his concern for these victims and their families 
and his knowledge of his home State, will go into even more detail. I 
will read the first names. As we are reading them, we should think 
about what we can do, what we should do as a people, or should we just 
do what has been done too many other times and move on?
  Alyssa, Scott, Martin, Nicholas, Aaron, Jaime, Chris, Luke, Cara, 
Gina, Joaquin, Alaina, Meadow, Helena, Alex, Carmen, and Peter--17 
individuals who are missing in the lives of their family, missing what 
their classmates are experiencing every day; missing from the lives of 
those classmates, sometimes their best friends. As the songwriter says, 
those 17 are missing when they shut out the lights. They are missing 
when they close their eyes at night. And they are missing when they see 
the sunrise.
  We have an obligation. We are dutybound as an institution but maybe 
more importantly, as a people, to take action. The time is now--maybe 
not to finish action, but the time is now to take action.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, as the Senator from Pennsylvania is 
leaving, those are the people whose names he just read. That is why I 
am here to tell you that teachers, students, and staff at Marjory 
Stoneman Douglas High School returned to school for the first time 
since that shooting 2 weeks ago. Some were ready. Some who returned 
were scared. Some didn't go back; they are going to a different school.
  What happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 2 weeks ago 
should never happen anywhere in this country, ever, ever, never again.
  Look at those faces so full of promise. Here is the coach. He saved 
some of the kids' lives. He jumped in front of them. This is another 
adult who tried to save lives. Here is another adult who tried to save 
lives. It shouldn't happen in a school. It shouldn't happen at a 
nightclub, like Pulse. It shouldn't happen in an airport or a church or 
an outdoor concert. It shouldn't happen.
  So why does it happen? Why does this keep happening over and over 
again? Well, I am going to tell you why. It is because of us. It is 
because all 100 Members of this Senate and all 435 Members down the 
hallway in the House of Representatives--it is our refusal to act. It 
is our failure to convince one another that there are some things that 
should be done regardless of party politics or polls or what the 
special interests want. They ought to be done simply because they are 
the right things to do.
  What about a commonsense approach, like a background check every time 
somebody buys a gun? What about a comprehensive or universal background 
check that would expand if there is a restraining order? How about if 
there is a mental problem other than just an adjudicated mental order? 
How about the terrorist watch list? If you are on that list, you can't 
get on an airplane because you are suspected to be a terrorist. Why 
should they be able to buy a gun? How about if you had been on the 
terrorist watch list and are no longer? That would have caught the 
shooter in Orlando because Omar Mateen had been on the terrorist watch 
list and was no longer when he walked in and bought that Sig Sauer MCX 
and mowed down 49 people.
  It is our refusal to act. It is our failure to convince one another 
that there are some things that should be done. If you take the 
commonsense approach of requiring a background check, that is the right 
thing to do. Banning the military-style assault rifles, that is the 
right thing to do.
  People get confused. There is a difference between a semiautomatic 
rifle and an assault rifle. Ever since I was a little boy, I had a .22 
semiautomatic rifle with a clip. That is not an assault weapon. Even a 
bullet coming from a handgun--as one of the trauma surgeons who tended 
to some of the victims in Broward County points out--that handgun 
bullet will go in and come out through a victim the same size as it 
went in. If it goes through an organ such as the liver, they can save 
that person. That is in contrast to an assault rifle weapon--a bullet 
that has three times the speed of a handgun bullet and that has three 
times the energy when it hits the victim. So if it goes into an organ 
such as the liver, it doesn't go through like a handgun bullet. It 
pulverizes the liver, and when it comes out on the other side of the 
body, it is as big as an orange. That is what an assault rifle is. 
Listen to the trauma surgeons. They will tell you.
  We could take up commonsense legislation right now and enact these 
simple, commonsense measures to make our communities safer and help 
prevent another mass tragedy, but unfortunately I think it is going to 
be very difficult. For weeks now, even in the face of parents, 
students, and teachers across this country calling for action, we have 
done nothing. We have seen an entire community turn its grief and its 
outrage into a massive call for change, and we have done nothing.
  Across this country we have seen gun owners destroy their own assault 
weapons. We have seen major corporations distance themselves from 
groups like the NRA and their discounts. Just today, we heard announced 
that private companies such as Dick's Sporting Goods are taking it upon 
themselves to stop selling these weapons of war. They are not going to 
sell AR-15s anymore. They are not going to do it because they were told 
to, because Congress passed a law, but because it was the right thing 
to do.
  So if Congress fails to act now, when will we act? If these brave, 
young students who lost their fellow students and faculty aren't enough 
to break through the gridlock in Congress, what is it going to take? If 
this tragedy doesn't spur us to action, lead us to change, what will? 
When will enough finally be enough?
  I say to my colleagues, the time to act is now. Let's not let what 
happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High fade into memory like so many 
other tragedies. Let's take this tragedy and make it a pivotal moment 
in our Nation's history. Let's not have to go through these massacres 
again. Let's let this be the last one.
  Let's come together as a Senate and do what needs to be done. Let's 
do what so many before us have been unable to do--let's take action. 
Let's let this massacre be the last massacre.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.

[[Page S1277]]

  

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I appreciate the senior Senator from 
Florida, and the grief he represents through his State, coming to the 
floor and speaking about the lives which were lost and the clarion call 
for us to act.
  I come to the floor today because 2 weeks ago, once again, a weapon 
of mass murder was used to commit mass murder in an American school, 
and, once again, our hearts are heavy with a grief that has become too 
routine.
  Once again, the gun lobbyists say we are powerless to do anything 
about it, but this time it feels different. That is because the 
students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have started a 
movement to turn ``once again'' into ``never again.''
  Unfortunately, too many of my colleagues act as if mass shootings are 
inevitable, when, in reality, they are preventable. The American people 
are sick and tired of it. That is why they have been so inspired by 
these students from Parkland.
  I saw it with my own eyes last Sunday. A few of these Marjory 
Stoneman Douglas survivors came to visit New Jersey, and my 
constituents came out in droves to support them. Together with the 
Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest and Moms Demand Action, we 
rallied well over 2,000 people in support of their ``Never Again'' 
movement.
  What is remarkably refreshing about these students is, they are not 
yet jaded by the ways of Washington. They have spent their lives 
practicing active shooter drills. They have grown up being told that 
mass shootings are just a fact of life, but they know they deserve 
better.
  After being thrust into a tragedy, they have turned their mourning 
into a movement. By speaking out, the students of Parkland have pricked 
the conscience of this country, and the American people are answering 
their call to action.
  We see it at rallies across the country calling for tougher, smarter, 
commonsense gun safety laws. We see it in students across America 
organizing the March for Our Lives, and we see it in corporate America.
  Companies such as United Airlines have already parted ways with the 
NRA. Retailers such as Dick's Sporting Goods have announced they will 
take AR-15s off their shelves and stop selling guns to teenagers.
  As Americans take action, the question is whether Congress will do 
the same. Far too many of my colleagues still fear a backlash from the 
NRA. That is why, after Las Vegas, they refused to ban the bump stocks 
that make mass shootings more deadly. That is why, after Sandy Hook, 
they refused to pass tougher background checks. That is why, after 
Orlando, they refused to even consider my own bill to ban the sale of 
high-capacity magazines. High-capacity magazines are designed for one 
thing and one thing only--high-capacity killing. They are the grim 
hallmark of mass shootings in America, linking Parkland to Newtown, and 
Las Vegas to San Bernardino, and Aurora to Orlando.
  Certainly, I have been encouraged to hear some of my colleagues say 
they may consider supporting limits on magazine sizes now. I have a 
legislation here I introduced months ago to do just that. The Keep 
America Safe Act is narrowly focused. It doesn't infringe on anyone's 
right to bear arms. I challenge all of my colleagues to sign on. 
However, in my view, we must do more than ban high-capacity magazines.
  I, for one, voted for the assault weapons ban of 1994, when I was in 
the House of Representatives, and I am a cosponsor of the bill to 
reinstate it today. These weapons have no place in civilian society. 
They are not designed for self-defense. They are modeled after weapons 
our soldiers use on the battlefield, but if we are going to get 
anywhere, we must stop letting the NRA set the agenda in Washington.
  It is amazing to me that some of my colleagues are effectively 
holding gun safety legislation hostage until they can pass their NRA-
backed concealed carry bill.
  I spent a lot of time hearing from my colleagues, particularly on the 
other side of the aisle, talk about State rights--State rights. Well, 
apparently, New Jersey's right to enforce our own gun laws doesn't 
count when it comes to State rights.
  Our State has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, and it is 
no coincidence that we have the sixth lowest rate of gun deaths in the 
Nation. We want to keep it that way, but this bill, hot off the NRA's 
wish list, would let concealed carry permit holders from States with 
looser standards bring their weapons to New Jersey.
  At the end of the day, the NRA has 5 or 6 million members. We are a 
nation of 320-plus million people. While millions of responsible gun 
owners believe in the Second Amendment, poll after poll tells us they 
also believe in universal background checks and commonsense gun laws.
  It is time we call out those who spout the same old NRA talking 
points, such as ``Guns don't kill people, people kill people.'' Well, 
that is why we don't run background checks on guns; we run them on 
people.
  The NRA would have us believe that all we need to do is to have 
comprehensive background checks, when in reality what we need are 
universal background checks. This means requiring background checks for 
all private sales, transfers, and online sales on the internet. Why 
should you be able to buy, with a click of the mouse, a significant 
weapon without ever going through a background check?
  Likewise, they say it is time for teachers to be armed and our 
schools to be ``hardened.'' Well, I haven't met many teachers who want 
to be charged with assessing threats and taking lives in front of their 
own students. Let's be serious. Arming teachers wouldn't stop the next 
Las Vegas. Only we can do that by passing sensible and reasonable gun 
safety measures that limit the sale of deadly weapons and keeping guns 
out of the wrong hands.
  After running for their lives on February 14, the students of Marjory 
Stoneman Douglas will march for their lives on March 24. It is 
inspiring to see that despite all the dysfunction in Washington, young 
Americans still believe in their power to make change.
  How tragic would it be if we in Congress proved them wrong and, once 
again, let business as usual in Washington prevent us from taking 
action to save lives? For my part, that is not going to happen.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I appreciate the remarks of my senior 
Senator from New Jersey. His passion and his commitment to this issue, 
not just after this mass shooting, has been consistent in fighting for 
commonsense gun safety for years, and I am grateful for his leadership 
as my senior Senator.
  It has now been 2 weeks since a gunman took the lives of 17 children, 
teachers, and school administrators in Parkland, FL. In the days and 
weeks since, we have seen young people from that community lead a 
movement for change that is growing in our country, standing up to 
special interests, standing up to the small minority of folks who seem 
to want to let the status quo continue, standing up to the NRA and the 
gun industry and making clear the fierce urgency of now, of this 
moment, of this day. These young people are showing what true courage 
is. They are showing it at a time of great grief, of great pain in 
their lives.
  I know what they are fighting for. It is not a fringe issue. I know 
what they are fighting for. It is not representative of some small 
minority; they are fighting for the majority of Americans who agree 
with them, the majority of Americans who want commonsense gun safety in 
America. Those folks who own guns and those who don't want background 
checks for all gun buyers, including those between private dealers and 
gun shows.
  The majority of Americans don't want people who are suspected 
terrorists to be able to go to a gun show and go to a private seller 
and drive off with a trunkful of weapons. The majority of Americans 
know that we should be keeping people with a history of domestic 
violence from getting their hands on a gun. The majority of Americans 
want to choke the pipeline of illegal guns that are flooding American 
communities from sea to shining sea, from the Great Lakes to the gulf 
coast.
  The overwhelming majority of Americans know that we can do more to 
prevent gun violence. Sure, we can't stop everyone, but we can do 
things that will reduce the violence, reduce the

[[Page S1278]]

number of deaths, and save lives. These are commonsense things that the 
majority of Americans--gun owners, non-gun owners, Republicans and 
Democrats--a majority of Americans support these policies that are 
proven.
  For example, we know it is true that in States like Connecticut, when 
they instituted commonsense background checks, they saw firearm 
homicides drop by 40 percent. And we know that States that implement 
laws blocking perpetrators of domestic violence from getting guns see a 
significant reduction--upward of 10 percent--in homicides by people's 
intimate partners.
  We know that between 2009 and 2013, States that have required 
background checks on handguns saw 35 percent fewer gun deaths per 
capita than States that didn't.
  This is fact. We know that commonsense gun safety, supported by over 
80 percent of gun owners and over 90 percent of Americans, will save 
lives.
  Dr. King once said--and I am paraphrasing here--that morality can't 
be legislated, but behavior can be regulated; that the law can't make 
someone love me, but it stop them from lynching me; that the law can't 
change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.
  We know we have the power to make the change.
  This is no panacea. These ideas will not solve all of the problems, 
but they can make a difference, and they can save lives.
  The time to act is right now. To not act is to be complicit in the 
continued levels of violence in our communities.
  Every day that passes with no action--every single day we see, on 
average, 96 Americans in this country killed by a gun, including 
children. Every day that we do not act in this body, dozens and dozens 
of our American fellow citizens are dying due to gun violence, much of 
it preventable. Too many families in this country, too many fellow 
Americans know the pain and the grief and the agony of what we see in 
the faces of the children from Parkland.
  Gun violence isn't just manifested in uniquely horrifying mass 
shootings in our schools and in our churches and in our movie theaters; 
it is a pervasive, everyday public health epidemic. It is an everyday 
reality for Americans across the country. It is an everyday reality for 
women in America. Fifty women every single month are shot to death by 
intimate partners in this country, making the United States the most 
dangerous country in the developed world when it comes to gun violence 
against women. We know that over half of all women killed by an 
intimate partner are killed with a gun. We know that when a gun is 
involved in a situation of domestic violence, a woman is five times 
more likely to be killed. We can do something to lower this kind of 
carnage.
  Gun violence is an everyday reality for children and for young people 
in this country. On an average day in America, 7 children and teens 
will be killed with a gun, and 40 more children will be shot and 
survive, often being crippled or severely wounded, often costing 
American taxpayers millions of dollars for their healthcare. We can 
lower this rate of carnage.
  Gun violence is an everyday reality for people living in cities, like 
where I live. In the last year there was a shooting on my block. We 
know that for Black Americans living in a city or urban area in this 
country, they are almost 500 times more likely to be killed by gun 
violence than they are by terrorism. This is an urgent problem. It is 
an everyday problem. This is pressing on us every single day to act, 
and every day that we don't, our inaction will cost lives.
  Since the tragedy in Parkland, in New Jersey alone we have seen 
children, young people, the elderly, women, Black and White Americans 
killed by gun violence. I have a stack of examples of this right here--
news reports of the violence in my State.
  One week ago, it was a 10-year-old boy. Yovanni Banos-Merino was 
killed with a gun, and his mother was wounded in Asbury Park, NJ.
  The day before that, on February 20, an elderly man killed his wife--
domestic violence. He killed her with a gun and then took his own life, 
a suicide.
  Just 6 days ago, a teenager in my city of Newark, NJ, Ishmail 
Anthony, was killed with a gun.
  Every single day we do not act, dozens and dozens of Americans are 
killed.
  Look at this chart. We can't even read the font. Look at these 
American citizens--young people, old people, Black people, White 
people, men, women, Republicans, Democrats.
  Look at this chart. We know that right now, in the past 2 weeks since 
the tragedy, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which compiled this 
list from news reports, 477 Americans have been killed with a gun--in 
the past 2 weeks alone, 477 American citizens.
  This government was formed with a purpose. It says clearly in our 
founding documents ``for the common defence.'' In 2 weeks, there were 
477 people who we did not defend--477 people whom we could have done 
more to save. Again, 477 people, 2 weeks since Parkland, and we have a 
nation that speaks to the purpose of ensuring life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. They lost their lives.
  We may not have the power to stop all gun violence, but gun owners 
and non-gun owners, Republicans and Democrats, and our Nation as a 
whole agree, with a chorus of consent, that we should do things like 
commonsense background checks. Our inaction, our unwillingness to do 
the will of the people is costly, not just to the integrity of this 
body, not just for the purpose of this body, but it is costly in the 
most grievous of ways every day. Every day, dozens die; in 2 weeks, 
477.
  We must do better. We can do better. With the help of God almighty, 
we will.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, I wish to thank my colleagues for their 
words on this difficult, challenging topic.
  On this day 2 weeks ago, the Parkland, FL, community ``took 17 
bullets to the heart'' as Cameron, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas 
High School, so devastatingly put it.
  Over the past years, the epidemic of gun violence has touched every 
aspect of American life, from schools and churches to concerts and 
night clubs and movie theaters, in homes and in the workplace. After 
each of these tragedies, we say enough is enough, yet time and again 
Congress fails to take action, and the discussion fades until this 
deadly cycle once again repeats itself. But we cannot allow this 
vicious cycle to continue.
  Like many Americans, I have been inspired and touched by the bravery 
of the students of Stoneman Douglas and by their determination to 
create from this tragedy a legacy of positive change. They are looking 
to us to help ensure that they are the last students who suffer through 
a mass shooting. They will hold us accountable, as they should.
  I have been inspired by students like Sam, who said that he doesn't 
feel safe in his own country and powerfully asked at the White House: 
``How did we not stop this after Columbine? After Sandy Hook?''
  And Emma, who has been calling out elected officials for the excuses 
they make for putting the priorities of the gun lobby ahead of the 
safety and well-being of their constituents. Emma and her classmates 
rightly have called these excuses BS.
  We must actually listen to these students, and we must act to protect 
them and all of our children.
  People across New Hampshire own guns for hunting, sport, and 
protection. New Hampshire has a long tradition of responsible gun 
ownership that I respect and that I am committed to upholding. But I 
also know that the people in New Hampshire do not want dangerous 
weapons in the wrong hands. It is our job to keep our citizens safe, 
and we owe it to the students and survivors who are speaking out, to 
those whom we have lost to tragic violence, and to their families and 
loved ones to come together and make our communities safer.
  The level of gun violence in America is a public health crisis that 
is unique to our Nation, and like all public health challenges, there 
are actions we can take to mitigate harm and save lives. We can put in 
place responsible, commonsense policies that will do just that.
  To start, we know that the shooter in Parkland displayed warning 
signs that, if properly heeded and addressed, may have prevented the 
incident, the massacre. But when law enforcement was called because of 
these warning signs,

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it is not clear that they had tools that would have allowed them to 
confiscate the shooter's weapons. So one of the things we must do is 
ensure that every State has what are known as red flag laws--laws which 
allow courts to issue time-limited restraining orders to restrict 
access to firearms when there is evidence that an individual is 
planning to harm themself or others.
  It is also long past time that we improve our background check system 
to close loopholes and ensure that people who are already legally 
barred from owning guns cannot easily access them--a step that we know 
is supported by the vast majority of Americans.
  Studies have shown the correlation between gun violence and people 
with a history of domestic violence. We must close loopholes that 
enable domestic abusers to access guns.
  Additionally, for too long, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention have been barred from conducting public health research on 
gun violence. We must change that.
  Finally, from banning the use of bump stocks to raising the 
purchasing age of semiautomatic weapons to 21, we must look at 
responsible steps to reduce access to deadly weapons of war that fire 
at high rates and inflict massive harm.
  No one gun safety measure is perfect, and no gun safety measure will 
stop every act of gun violence, but that should not stop us from taking 
action. After all, we take public health measures all the time that 
don't prevent all diseases but vastly reduce the incidence of them.
  In a country with a government of, by, and for the people, it is 
simply an outrage to suggest that there is nothing the people who 
govern themselves can do to ensure that their gun safety laws evolve as 
firearm technology creates weapons of increasing lethality. I also 
refuse to accept the notion that we cannot pass any law to address gun 
safety because it is too hard or the challenges are too insurmountable. 
That has not stopped our Nation before, and it shouldn't now.
  Students in Parkland and young people across the country are speaking 
out and making clear that they don't want to live this way. They don't 
want the horror that they experienced to be inflicted on more of their 
peers. These young voices are speaking up and sparking a conversation 
that has been absent or has been pushed to the wayside for far too 
long. It is up to us to meet them in this moment.
  The purpose of self-government is to make sure that we all do, in 
fact, feel safe and valued and that we each have a chance to build a 
life for ourselves. Let's take action to give all of our citizens those 
opportunities and keep our people safe from senseless acts of gun 
violence.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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