[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3234-S3235]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Gun Violence Awareness Month

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, this weekend another community was torn 
apart by gun violence. Once again, politicians do what so many 
politicians in this body do. They offer thoughts and prayers to the 
people of Virginia Beach, and then they move on. It is tragic, and it 
is obscene how routine this has become in our country and how routine 
that reaction from far too many politicians--from the White House on 
down--has become.
  This month we mark Gun Violence Awareness Month, but in our country 
every month, every week, and every day we endure senseless gun 
violence. Congress has ignored for too long the millions of Americans 
who want reasonable gun safety measures instead of doing the bidding of 
the gun lobby.
  We cannot say we are doing what it takes to keep our country safe 
until we are finally willing to pass commonsense laws to protect all 
Americans from gun violence. Many of us have tried.
  I supported the original Federal assault weapons ban in 1994. I 
joined with many of my colleagues to vote to renew it after Sandy Hook. 
Weapons of war and assault weapons do not belong on our streets.
  We have tried to pass legislation to close loopholes in our 
background check system so that people who buy guns on the internet or 
at gun shows have to go through the same background checks as law-
abiding gun owners who buy their guns at stores in Ohio.
  After the tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, we tried to pass 
legislation to prevent people on the terrorist watch list from buying 
guns. If you are too dangerous to get on an airplane--if the government 
says you can't ride in the plane because you are on the terrorist watch 
list--it should be too dangerous for you to buy a deadly weapon. But 
this body is so, so in the pocket of the NRA that they will not even 
pass legislation like that. The gun lobby, again, stood in the way. We 
know what happened each and every time. They stood in the way, despite 
the fact that the laws we are talking about would not undermine the 
rights of law-abiding gun owners.
  I respect the rights of hunters, of collectors, and of responsible 
law-abiding gun owners. No one is trying to take away their guns. When 
our students aren't safe in our schools, it is clear that something has 
to be done. When workers aren't safe on the job, it is clear that we 
have to do something. When too many Americans don't feel safe going 
about their daily lives in their communities, we can't sit here and do 
nothing.
  We will not give up on making our country safer. We will keep working 
until we get weapons of war out of our schools, out of our workplaces, 
out of our neighborhoods, and out of our

[[Page S3235]]

places of worship. Creating change in our country isn't easy. It 
requires going up against powerful special interests. Few are as 
powerful as the NRA. Change never starts in Washington. We make 
progress because of grassroots movements of Americans all across our 
country demanding action. From Marches for Our Lives to the Women's 
March, to the activism around the Affordable Care Act, Americans proved 
again and again and again the power of activism. Mothers and fathers, 
students and teachers all across this country who stood up and marched 
for gun safety are the people we sent here to serve, not the special 
interest gun lobby.
  I hope my colleagues will not so easily forget what happened in 
Virginia Beach and at the Poway synagogue and in Pittsburgh and in 
Parkland and in Orlando and at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis and in 
Las Vegas and in Sandy Hook and in our neighborhoods around this 
country every month, every week, and every day.