[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 83 (Monday, May 21, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        20-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE THURSTON HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, it is with sadness and reflection that I 
take a moment today to remember the shooting at Thurston High School in 
Springfield, OR, 20 years ago.
  At the time, we thought of Thurston as a tragic anomaly and not as 
the forerunner of the horrific epidemic of gun violence in our schools 
we are living today. This plague rips away the lives of children and 
teachers, forever wounding the body and spirit of entire communities 
which never truly heal.
  Twenty years have passed since a 15-year-old Thurston student went to 
his school, after killing his parents in their home, and opened fire on 
his classmates, but the rollcall of mass shootings and gun violence 
continues to grow. In my own home State of Oregon, in the past 20 
years, we endured Thurston, Reynolds High School, Clackamas Town 
Center, and Umpqua Community College, among other acts of gun violence. 
Every time, we say this will be the last, and every time, it is not.
  Even one, the shooting at Thurston, is too long a list, in my book; 
yet, tragically this epidemic of gun violence struck yet another 
community just last week in Santa Fe, Texas.
  The students, teachers, families, and communities devastated by the 
mass shootings at Thurston, Newtown, Parkland, Santa Fe, and all of 
those not listed here deserve and rightfully demand so much more than 
thoughts and prayers.
  They demand action. Congress must push back against special interests 
that have blocked every reasonable effort to protect our children and 
communities from gun violence. Congress must finally honor the lives 
lost and those many lives that have been so irrevocably altered by 
passing common sense gun laws.
  All of our students and teachers and all of their families and 
communities deserve to go about their regular daily lives free from the 
fear of gun violence. Sadly, today, that is not our reality.
  When I see the students and young people who organized the March for 
Our Lives in our Nation's Capital, in Oregon, and across the country, I 
see the spirit of those Thurston youngsters violently stolen from their 
families and loved ones. Let's honor them with action to protect our 
future.

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