[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 180 (Wednesday, November 14, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6943-S6944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Gun Violence

  Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, winter has arrived in Pittsburgh. Today, 
11 3-foot-tall wooden Stars of David make up a sidewalk memorial in the 
city's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and they will be brought inside the 
Tree of Life Synagogue to protect this display of the city's grief from 
the snowstorm.
  Pittsburgh, the Jewish community and our entire country were shaken 
by a horrific anti-Semitic attack that occurred on October 27, during 
Shabbat morning services. Members of three Jewish congregations were 
present: the Tree of Life, Dor Hadash, and New Light congregations. 
Eleven innocent people were senselessly slaughtered in the attack, and 
six others were wounded, including four police officers who responded 
to the attack.
  Even within this act of evil, there were displays of amazing courage 
and humanity: the first responders, who rushed into danger to apprehend 
the shooter and protect others; the Jewish doctors and nurses who cared 
for not just the victims but the shooter as well. Like Dr. Jeffrey 
Cohen, president of Allegheny County Hospital--who is actually a member 
of the Tree of Life Synagogue--displayed an amazing, remarkable courage 
and humanity in visiting the shooter to ask him about his care and to 
try to make some sense of the attack.
  After such an inexplicable event, all of us looked for the motivation 
of the perpetrator and asked why.
  Well, let's be clear about what this shooting was about. It was a 
cowardly act of brutal violence, fueled by anti-Semitism, a corrupt and 
repulsive ideology that really betrays our most fundamental values and 
distorts history.
  John Adams had an interesting quote. John Adams said:

       If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I 
     should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be 
     the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. 
     They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this 
     Earth. The Romans and their Empire were but a Bauble in 
     comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three 
     quarters of the Globe and have influenced the affairs of 
     Mankind more, and more happily, than any other Nation ancient 
     or modern.

  Despite Judaism's incredible contributions to mankind and to our own 
country and our country's founding, anti-Semitism is still far too 
prevalent. We can't ignore it. We must condemn it. We must challenge 
it.
  I think there is a lesson here from Dr. Cohen, whom I mentioned 
earlier. When asked how he could visit a patient with so much hatred, 
Dr. Cohen replied:

       I thought it was important to at least talk to him and meet 
     him. You can't on one hand say we should talk to each other, 
     and then I don't talk to him.

  I think Dr. Cohen's wisdom and insights in humanity could be useful 
for this body as well. I have spent a lot of time working with 
colleagues and others to try to find some commonsense solutions to 
address some element of the gun violence that plagues this country. Too 
often, it seems to me, we talk past each other rather than speaking 
with each other.
  I know there are strongly held views on the Second Amendment, and I 
am one of the Senators who has strongly held views on the Second 
Amendment. I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, but I am 
also convinced

[[Page S6944]]

there is common ground among people who have different views on the 
Second Amendment.
  In this session of Congress that we are wrapping, we overwhelmingly 
enacted legislation to improve NICS, the National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System, which is used to prevent the sale of firearms 
to people who should not have firearms. Now think about that. We all 
agree firearms should not be sold to criminals and the dangerously 
mentally ill. I have never heard any colleague in this body suggest 
that firearms should be sold to violent criminals or dangerously 
mentally ill people. No. We all agree, as does our entire society, that 
these are people who shouldn't have firearms. So we have a NICS system 
that is designed, when it works well, to identify people who should not 
be able to have firearms because they are convicted criminals or 
dangerously mentally ill, or both, and we in this body recently passed 
legislation to improve the effectiveness of that NICS system.
  Since we all accept the premise of the NICS system, and we have in 
fact enacted legislation to improve the effectiveness of the NICS 
system, shouldn't we also agree to close the remaining loopholes in the 
background check in this NICS system?
  One measure that I think ought to be a consensus measure, and I know 
has bipartisan support, is that using the NICS system, we should cover 
all commercial sales of firearms with a background check. This is just 
a commonsense measure that is entirely consistent and compatible with 
the Second Amendment.
  The Constitution guarantees the rights of law-abiding people to own 
firearms, but there is no such right for violent criminals and those 
who are dangerously mentally ill. I am not the only one who believes 
that. None other than the very pro-Second Amendment Justice Antonin 
Scalia wrote that it is completely compatible with the Second Amendment 
to have regulations like a background check.
  Senator Joe Manchin and I have introduced bipartisan legislation that 
would address this loophole, that would expand background checks. It is 
pretty simple. It simply says that all commercial sales of firearms, 
including those sales at gun shows and over the internet, need to be 
subject to criminal and mental background checks. If you pass the 
background check, you get to buy your gun, but if you fail the 
background check, then you are exactly the kind of person we have all 
agreed shouldn't be able to get a gun. This is just common sense. By 
the way, he and I built into this legislation a number of provisions to 
allow law-abiding gun owners to more fully exercise their Second 
Amendment rights.
  So I hope my colleagues will join me in working to advance this 
commonsense, bipartisan measure to keep our communities a little bit 
safer. I have never suggested that this would end mass shootings in 
America--that would be absurd--but it might make it a little more 
difficult for someone who doesn't belong owning a firearm to obtain 
one.
  I know in our country many people feel a deep sense of division. We 
saw it after the shooting at the Tree of Life. We see it sometimes in 
the debates here, including over gun safety, but this isn't the first 
time or even the worst time we have been divided.
  Interestingly, Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue was founded in 
1864 during the Civil War. When I was in Pittsburgh following the 
tragedy, the day after the attack, I attended a beautiful memorial 
service just a few miles from the Tree of Life Synagogue. The service 
was at the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall. At that ceremony, 
Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, people from every walk of life 
were represented. People from the Greater Pittsburgh area united to 
support their Jewish neighbors.
  It was fitting to gather at the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial. This 
memorial was founded by veterans of the Civil War in Allegheny County 
to honor the sacrifice and valor of those who were willing to die to 
save our country during that war. The very first soldier from Allegheny 
County to die in the Civil War was a married salesman in his early 
thirties from Pittsburgh. He died at the Battle of Williamsburg on May 
5, 1862. His name was Jacob Brunn. He was Jewish. That didn't matter to 
Pittsburgh. The entire city turned out for his funeral, the entire 
city. As one historian put it, ``the city put religious and political 
differences aside to honor the man who was first to fall.''
  I hope the Senate can also put aside some of our political 
differences and do something sensible. It is our duty, and it would be 
a fitting act of remembrance for victims of mass shootings--at the Tree 
of Life, Thousand Oaks, Sandy Hook, and all the others whose deaths 
from gun violence have scarred our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2644

  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 393, S. 2644. I 
further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed 
to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, 
and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the 
table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The majority leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.