[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 37 (Thursday, March 1, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S1299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Fix NICS Bill

  Mr. President, on a final note, I would like to bring up one last 
topic we have been discussing a lot this last week; that is, ways we 
can prevent mass shootings from happening in the future. Of course, the 
most recent one occurred at Parkland, FL, at Stoneman Douglas High 
School.
  Last fall, my State saw another insidious shooting at Sutherland 
Springs near San Antonio, TX. Twenty-six people lost their lives that 
day worshipping in a small Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, and 20 
more were wounded, including a 6-year-old boy named Ryland Ward, who 
was shot five times. We are ecstatic Ryland survived and is now out of 
the hospital and has gone home.
  What we all learned in the aftermath of that event is that sometimes 
these horrific crimes are perpetrated by individuals who never should 
have been able to purchase firearms in the first place. That is 
because, under current law, convicted felons, like the gunman at 
Sutherland Springs, are prohibited from legally purchasing firearms. 
The problem was that his convictions were not uploaded in the National 
Instant Criminal Background Check System, what is commonly referred to 
as the NICS system operated by the FBI.
  I have introduced a bill that has already passed the House that would 
address this problem and, I believe, would save lives in the future. It 
is a bipartisan piece of legislation cosponsored by the junior Senator 
from Connecticut. Senator Murphy, along with his colleague Senator 
Blumenthal, come from the State that saw the horrific killings at Sandy 
Hook. We added 10 new cosponsors just this week, bringing the total 
number to 50 cosponsors for this legislation. In my experience, it is 
rare to see a piece of legislation enjoy such broad, bipartisan 
support--50 cosponsors.
  I have been saying all week that we need to pass this bill now. We 
should not wait, we should not go home emptyhanded, and we should not 
have to face the grieving families who lost a child or a loved one as a 
result of a future shooting that might have been averted had we acted. 
America is tired of the government's response to these catastrophes 
which rip families apart, take lives, and pit people against each 
other. The response of their government has been largely either silence 
or bickering with no outcome, no result.
  There are other proposals we can consider as we continue to grapple 
with the questions posed in Parkland--questions about failures of local 
law enforcement, social media platforms, and the FBI. Yesterday, the 
President hosted an amazing meeting of 17 Members of Congress on a 
bipartisan basis and brainstormed about other things we might be able 
to do, but right now--right now--fix NICS is our best and only option 
to act in response. It is supported by the President, the majority and 
minority leaders are cosponsors, and it is supported by gun groups like 
the NRA and Everytown for Gun Safety, which are at opposite ends of the 
ideological spectrum when it comes to the Second Amendment. As I said, 
this bill has 50 cosponsors in the Senate and is ready for action, 
having already passed the House of Representatives.
  I pledged to myself, after my wife and I visited Sutherland Springs a 
week after the terrible shooting there and attended a church service 
led by the pastor who lost his 14-year-old daughter in that shooting 
just 1 week before--it was a gut-wrenching, emotional service, but it 
was inspiring in its own way. I pledged then that I would never face 
another grieving family with empty hands, saying we could have done 
something that might have saved your child's life or your loved one's 
life by fixing the broken background check system. I pledged I would 
never face them again, saying we didn't try our best to save lives in 
the future by passing commonsense, bipartisan legislation like the Fix 
NICS bill.
  As I said, there are other things we might do, but, as we all know, 
the threshold for actually passing legislation is 60 votes. What I 
don't want us to do is to end up like we did on the DACA debate, where 
we started with a neutral bill--a shell which really did nothing--and 
all of the various proposals failed to get 60 votes, so we ended up 
emptyhanded on the DACA issue. I don't want that to happen again, and I 
am not going to go home and tell my constituents in Texas I didn't do 
my very best to make sure we did something and something meaningful 
that would save lives in the future. Fix NICS is the best way to do 
that and do that now.
  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. KAINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.