[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3225-S3226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING JAYLIN ELLZEY

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, a couple weeks ago, Jaylin Ellzey was a 
freshman at Fenger Academy High School in Chicago. According to his 
uncle, Jacob, he was an outgoing, kindhearted kid. He lived with his 
mother. He had two sisters and three brothers.
  Jaylin is not around anymore because he was one of those victims of 
gun violence in the city of Chicago.
  His uncle said:

       Summer in the city, it's just something different. Other 
     kids look forward to going to summer camp. He was just trying 
     to make sure he lived another day.

  His uncle, Jacob, began tearing up as he recalled his favorite memory 
of Jaylin as a small child. Whenever Jaylin and his brother would come 
stay with their uncle, they would take a bath, and then they would 
nestle amongst the pillows and the blankets, waiting for their uncle to 
blast them with hot air from a blow dryer.
  ``He was just a lovable kid surviving his environment,'' said his 
uncle. ``And he knew about family. Family was always instilled in 
him.''
  Since my life was changed in December of 2012, when 20 first graders 
were killed in Sandy Hook, I have tried to come down to the floor every 
couple weeks and tell the stories of victims of gun violence in this 
country to try to put some personality behind the 10,000 lives that 
have been lost in the last 100 days, and I told you about 5 of the 
victims this morning.
  Our inaction is complicity. There are tough things, and then there 
are easy things. I get it that there are some anti-gun violence 
measures that I would support that are just too hot for some Republican 
Members, but I don't care what State you are from, 97 percent of your 
constituents, 80 percent of your constituents--the vast majority of 
your constituents--support expanding background checks to make sure 
that if you buy a gun online or you buy a gun at a gun show, you have 
to go through a 5-minute background check.
  All of our constituents, no matter whether we represent a blue State 
or a red State, support extreme risk protection orders--the idea that 
you should be able to go to court when somebody is on the verge of 
lashing out against someone else or going to hurt themselves and take 
away their guns, at least temporarily. These are things that are not 
controversial anywhere, except for here, that we could pass.
  Since the House passed the background check bill--by the way, with 
bipartisan support--10,000 people have died, but there have been 109 
mass shootings. Thirty-one States have had a mass shooting; 166 kids 
have been killed or injured; 175 teenagers have been killed or injured.
  I am on the floor today to send my heartfelt condolences to the 
families in Virginia Beach who continue to mourn yet another mass 
shooting. I express, as I always do, my condolences to the families of 
gun violence throughout this country. Eighty to ninety people lose 
their life every day from a gunshot wound.
  I am also here today to ask my colleagues to think about why we 
continue to refuse to have a debate on a piece of legislation that the 
House passed 100 days ago in a bipartisan fashion.
  Even if you don't love the version of the background checks bill that 
the House passed, bring your own version to the floor--bring a 
different bill that will address the epidemic of gun violence in this 
country. All I ask is that you don't do nothing; that you stop your 
absolute silence in the face of this epidemic of slaughter.
  Let the Senate be the Senate. I heard there was a time some years ago 
when the U.S. Senate actually debated legislation. I have read in the 
history books that this is supposedly the greatest deliberative body in 
the world. We are doing no deliberation here. Bill after

[[Page S3226]]

bill passes the House of Representatives. None of them come before the 
Senate for a vote--no healthcare bills, no immigration bills, no anti-
gun violence bills.
  I get it that the bills that pass the House probably can't pass a 
Republican-led Senate, but why are we not even trying? Who is in charge 
here? The special interests who want nothing to happen, the gun lobby, 
the health insurance companies or are we in charge? We are the ones who 
were elected. We are the Members of the U.S. Senate. We could choose to 
have these debates, hash out our differences, and see if there is a 
proposal that 60 of us could agree on that would do something about 
this unacceptable level of gun violence that plagues this Nation on a 
daily basis.
  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. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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