[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 37 (Thursday, March 1, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1296-S1298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Gun Violence
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, on Friday, I visited Wilde Lake High
School in Columbia, which is located in Howard County, MD, between
Washington and Baltimore. I wanted to talk to students about the tragic
Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in
Parkland, FL, which left 17 students and faculty members dead. This is
the deadliest high school shooting in American history. I went to Wilde
Lake because one of their own teachers, Laura Wallen, was shot to death
in September 2017, and her former boyfriend is now on trial for her
murder.
I was extremely impressed by the passion of these students. They had
a great deal of interest in the subject matter; they were extremely
articulate; and they asked great questions. I found it extremely
encouraging for the future of Howard County, MD, and this Nation. These
students are rightfully concerned about their safety and the safety of
their classmates. It has been 2 weeks since a disturbed young man
invaded Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The reaction seems to be like clockwork after each shooting. There is
bipartisan shock, anger, and horror. Predictably, the question comes
out: Will this time be different? The answer for the Republican leaders
in Congress has always been ``no'' as the outrage and call to act
quickly falls back to NRA talking points versus reality. This time, the
students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the students in
Maryland and across the country are not taking ``no'' as the final
word. This time, the survivors are leading the way and are speaking out
in a forceful way like we have not heard before.
Students like Ryan Deitsch, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School, want to know why these students--the children--need to be the
ones to speak out ``just to save innocent lives,'' he said. He wants to
know why the adults cannot be the adults and do what is necessary to
protect children.
I think the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have had
a clear, articulate message that this carnage needs to stop. They want
to feel safe in their schools again. Armed with their cell phones and
their stories, they have taken up the banner of hashtag ``never again''
and are changing the face of this debate to make this country safer
from gun violence.
Alex Wind, another survivor from Stoneman Douglas, laid out the
larger problem of why students are mobilizing:
We're marching because it's not just schools. It's movie
theaters, it's concerts, it's nightclubs. This kind of stuff
can't just happen. You know, we are marching for our lives,
we're marching for the 17 lives we lost. And we're marching
for our children's lives and our children's children and
their children.
So what can we do?
There are several pieces of legislation that are ready to go. The
Democrats and some Republicans have been willing and ready to act.
Leader McConnell could move any one of these bills right now. Let's
start by making it clear that weapons of war are not needed by
civilians of any age. I have cosponsored S. 2095, the Assault Weapons
Ban of 2017, offered by Senator Feinstein.
This legislation would, one, ban the sale, manufacture, transfer, and
importation of military style assault weapons; two, ban any assault
weapon that accepts a detachable ammunition magazine and has one or
more military characteristics; three, ban magazines and other
ammunition feeding devices that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition,
which allow shooters to quickly fire many rounds without needing to
reload.
The bill also requires a background check on any future sale, trade,
or gifting of an assault weapon that is covered by the bill, and it
prohibits the transfer of high-capacity ammunition magazines. It also
bans bump fire stocks and other devices that allow semiautomatic
weapons to fire at fully automatic rates. Congress should also pass the
Background Check Expansion Act, S. 2009, which I have cosponsored and
has been offered by Senator Murphy.
This bill would expand Federal background check requirements to
include the sale or transfer of all firearms by private sellers, just
as licensed dealers are required to conduct checks for sales under the
existing Brady Law. The bill requires background checks for the sales
or transfers of all firearms from one private party to another even if
either party is not a federally licensed dealer. This requirement
extends to all unlicensed sellers whether they do business online, at
gun shows, or out of their homes.
According to a recent poll, a record 97 percent of those surveyed
said that they support requiring background checks for gun buyers--97
percent. Why can't we get this done? It is not a heavy lift. Americans
are with us on this. We need to recognize that saving children's lives
is more important than the National Rifle Association.
Congress also should ease restrictions on gun violence research and
prevention efforts by removing onerous restrictions on the Centers for
Disease Control research. We can improve States' sharing of information
with Federal databases that screen gun buyers.
At a townhall last week, Senator Rubio, when questioned by an
audience of students and parents from Stoneman Douglas, said that ``the
problems we are facing here today cannot be solved by gun laws alone.''
With that, I agree, but these gun laws will make a difference. Yes,
there is no single solution, but we should be united in our willingness
to do what we can to save lives.
I agree with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that we must
devote more resources to mental health priorities to identify young
people who may be about to cause harm to themselves or others.
[[Page S1297]]
Let's attack this problem from multiple directions. We cannot raise
our hands in the air and give up because there is no one law that can
solve the problem. Sitting on the sidelines is not an option when our
children are being killed, sometimes by other children, and
surrendering to the false logic that the problem is too big to address
falls well short of what the American people deserve. We were sent here
to our Nation's Capitol to make the tough decisions and to do the right
thing.
I agree with Alex Wind that this problem we need to tackle is larger
than simply school safety, but I would like to talk about that
specifically for one moment.
In an effort to turn the conversation away from an assault weapons
ban or closing loopholes in background checks, the President decided to
latch on to this idea that we should arm teachers and educators in our
schools. We do not need, as President Trump has suggested, more guns in
the schools, and we do not need teachers carrying guns. We do know that
teachers are hired to teach, not to be security guards.
Let's listen to our educators and say no to this proposal. The answer
to keeping guns and gun violence out of our schools is not to bring
more guns into the school. The students I talked to at Wilde Lake High
School in Columbia, MD, understood that adding more guns would not help
the situation and could lead to more problems in the schools
themselves. They certainly want to see their buildings more secure, but
we can do that through infrastructure improvements, technology, and
school resource officers.
Why are these things happening in the United States with such
alarming frequency and not elsewhere around the world? Gun-related
deaths unfold in tragic circumstances across this country daily, with
more than 1,800 people killed by guns this year alone, according to the
Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit group. Mass shootings often
shine the spotlight on the United States and its position as a global
outlier.
The number of firearms available to American civilians is estimated
to be around 310 million, according to the 2009 National Institute of
Justice report.
According to the Small Arms Survey, the exact number of civilian-
owned firearms is impossible to pinpoint because of a variety of
factors, including arms that go unregistered due to illegal trade and
global conflict. Estimates indicate that Americans own nearly half of
the 650 million civilian-owned guns in the world today, which is nearly
one gun for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Our
Nation is well armed. India is home to the second-largest civilian
firearm stockpile, estimated at 46 million.
Americans own the most guns per person in the world, with about 4 in
10 saying they either own a gun or live in a home where there is a gun,
according to the 2017 Pew Center study. Forty-eight percent of
Americans said they grew up in a house with guns. According to the
survey, a majority--66 percent--of U.S. gun owners own multiple
firearms. The No. 2 country in the world for the largest number of guns
per capita is Yemen--a country that is in the throes of a 3-year-old
civil war. They trail significantly behind us. They have 54 guns per
100 in Yemen; we have 88 guns per 100 in the United States.
When it comes to gun massacres, the United States is an anomaly.
There are more public mass shootings in America than in any other
country in the world. The United States makes up less than 5 percent of
the world's population but holds 31 percent of global mass shooters. In
Australia, for example, four mass shootings occurred between 1987 and
1996. After those instances, public opinion turned against gun
violence, and Parliament passed stricter gun safety laws. Australia
hasn't had a mass shooting since.
Gun safety laws work. The public demands that we take action to make
our communities safer.
Gun homicide rates are about 25 times higher in the United States
than in other developed countries. The United States has one of the
highest rates of death by firearms in the developed world, according to
World Health Organization data. The calculations based on OECD data
from 2010 show that Americans are 51 times more likely to be killed by
gunfire than people in the UK.
Most American gun owners say that a major reason they own a gun is
for personal protection, according to the Pew study. However, the
majority of firearms-related deaths are attributable to self-harm. Gun-
related suicides are eight times higher in the United States than in
other high-income nations.
Thinking of Stoneman Douglas High School, we all wonder out loud,
what drove this young man to kill indiscriminantly? There is no one
single reason, but that is no excuse for Congress and lawmakers in all
of our States to remain frozen and fail to act to try to stop a future
shooting from happening. If anything, it should be the impetus for us
to move forward on many fronts and to take many actions to support our
children and support our communities so more lives are not lost in such
a violent way.
We cannot allow the story of this shooting to end like all the others
in recent history. We should have taken action after three students
were killed and five wounded in December 1997 at a high school in West
Paducah, KY. We should have taken action after two students opened fire
on April 20, 1999, in Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, killing
12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others. We should have
taken action after a gunman fatally shot 32 people in a dorm and
classrooms at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, on April 16, 2007.
Columbine, Virginia Tech--for a period, these names became a code for
some of the worst killings in our history. Nearly 5 years later, it
happened again. Three students were killed and two wounded in a
shooting on February 27, 2012, that started in a school cafeteria in
Chardon, OH, as students waited for buses to other schools. Then there
was Sandy Hook. I know we all remember a 20-year-old gunman, in
December of 2012, killing 20 first grade children and 6 educators
inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT--elementary school
students. These were first graders, for goodness' sake, young children
who should clearly have moved us to action. But no. The killings
continued because the Republican leadership has been unwilling to budge
from the NRA-approved message.
We have had bipartisan support for some of this legislation, as we do
today, but too many are so afraid of the NRA response that they lose
sight of the fact that children are being killed right before our eyes.
On September 8, 2016, a 14-year-old girl died of a self-inflicted
gunshot wound after shooting and killing another female student at
Alpine High School in West Texas.
Just 20 days later, on September 28, a 6-year-old boy was fatally
shot on the playground of Townville Elementary School in South Carolina
by a 14-year-old boy who had just killed his father. Another child and
a teacher were struck by bullets but survived.
I know some of you are thinking: I haven't heard about these
shootings. That is a problem in and of itself. School shootings have
become so commonplace and so much a part of our lives that children
dying in our schools may not make it into the paper. We might miss it.
We cannot let this become commonplace. It cannot be the new norm.
Another incident you may not have heard of happened last April. A
gunman opened fire in the special education classroom of his estranged
wife at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, CA, killing her
and an 8-year-old boy and wounding another child.
In September of last year, in Rockford, WA, a 15-year-old boy was
killed at Freeman High School and three female students were wounded
when authorities say another 15-year-old boy opened fire with a
handgun.
In December of last year, two students at Aztec High School in New
Mexico were killed by a gunman disguised as a student.
Barely a month ago, in January, 2 students were killed and 14 wounded
by gunfire when a student opened fire before classes began at Marshall
County High School in West Kentucky. A 15-year-old--a 15-year-old--is
being charged for this crime.
This time, the survivors are speaking out in a forceful way like we
have not
[[Page S1298]]
heard before. I think the students speaking out have had a clear,
articulate message that this carnage needs to stop. I am not sure I
know any lawmaker or American who would disagree with the idea that our
students need to be safe in their schools. It means that we need to
act--really act this time.
Setting aside the outrageous idea of arming teachers, it has been
heartening to see the President move in the direction of legislative
solutions, such as expanding background checks and banning bump stocks.
The devil is always in the details, and we will see how far the
President is willing to stray from the NRA and whether the Republican
leadership will back the President or remain on the sidelines of
protecting the American people and especially our children.
On that Valentine's Day, February 14, when I heard about the shooting
in Parkland, FL, my immediate reaction was horror, pain, and outrage.
How could we allow this to happen yet again? Schools should be a safe
harbor for our children, not a place of killing and terror. I was in my
office thinking about how tragic this is, not only for those who were
killed but for all the children who were there. I am as frustrated as
the people across this country. I want to pass commonsense gun safety
legislation. Why shouldn't we get these military-style weapons off the
streets?
It is hard to know what will motivate the congressional leadership to
bring up this issue, what will jar them to action. I want action. We
may not solve the problem entirely, but we need to try. We need to do
something.
A new CNN poll released just this Sunday finds that 70 percent of
Americans now back tougher gun laws. This is a huge jump from 52
percent after the tragic, horrific October shootings in Las Vegas. This
number includes 49 percent of Republicans, which I think is
encouraging. Saving lives should not be a partisan issue. Commonsense
gun safety legislation should not be a partisan issue.
Public opinion polls may not be perfect, but they are generally
helpful to show trends. Americans are getting it. It is time that we
do. This trend toward protecting the American people, and especially
our children, is moving in the right direction. The American people are
letting their voices be heard on this issue.
Thoughts and prayers might console the grieving for a moment, but
action speaks louder and will have a lasting impact. From my hometown
of Baltimore to the many towns across America that have had their names
in the headlines because of gun-related tragedies or mass shootings,
people are calling upon Congress to act.
I don't care what the reasons are for a change of heart, but let's
get bills on the floor. What we are proposing are logical next steps to
address the deadly problem that has been festering in this country for
too long. Too many young lives have been lost. Will this time be
different?
Mr. President, in honor of the victims of Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School, I ask unanimous consent that their names be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Scott Beigel, 35; Martin Duque
Anguiano, 14; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Aaron Feis, 37; Jaime
Guttenberg, 14; Chris Hixon, 49; Luke Hoyer, 15; Cara
Loughran, 14; Gina Montalto, 14; Joaquin Oliver, 17; Alaina
Petty, 14; Meadow Pollack, 18; Helena Ramsay, 17; Alex
Schachter, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16; Peter Wang, 15.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, to all the victims of gun violence who
have preceded them, let's make the answer a resounding yes.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.