[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 151 (Thursday, September 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5589-S5590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Background Checks

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, in February of this year, the House of 
Representatives passed what is known as the universal background check 
in regard to gun sales. Since that time, the Senate has had no action 
whatsoever on gun safety issues. Leader McConnell could bring this bill 
to the floor, and I am confident we have the support to pass it.
  I do hear from many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
that we are waiting for the President, and unless the President signs 
off on a bill, they are not interested in bringing it up. The last time 
I checked the Constitution of the United States, the first article of 
the Constitution provides for the legislative branch of government, and 
that is us. We make the laws, not the President of the United States. 
It is up to us to deliver and consider legislation and pass 
legislation. Yet there is no action from the floor of the Senate. 
Leader McConnell will not bring up gun safety legislation.
  Every day we wait--every single day--100 people in America die from 
gun violence. That is why many of us are frequently speaking on the 
floor of the Senate about the need to consider gun safety legislation.
  It has been over 200 days since the House took bipartisan action on 
the universal background checks. Since that time, we have seen many 
mass shootings, including on August 3 in El Paso, August 4 in Dayton, 
and August 31 in Odessa. There is no action on the floor of the Senate. 
Every day, there are people dying in our communities and in our homes 
from gun violence. Yet there is no action on the floor of the Senate.
  The United States is an outlier among the developed nations in the 
world. We have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times more instances of gun 
violence than in developed countries in the world. We have more guns in 
private ownership than the people of developed worlds, more suicides, 
more mass shootings, more gun violence. Yet there is no action on the 
floor of the Senate.
  The issue is kind of simple. Inaction is not an answer to gun 
violence in America. Americans are expecting us--the Members of the 
Senate--to consider gun safety legislation. We want the majority leader 
to bring that bill to the floor today before another 100 people die. 
Let us take action.
  I mentioned several times the bill that passed the House of 
Representatives over 200 days ago, the universal background checks. Let 
me just talk a moment about why that bill needs to be considered and 
passed as soon as possible. In 1993, we passed the Brady Handgun 
Violence Prevention Act. It provides for a presale check as to whether 
an individual is entitled to own a handgun. As I am sure my colleagues 
are aware, the Supreme Court of the United States has determined that 
the Second Amendment is not absolute. If you have been convicted of a 
violent crime, if you have mental issues, you are not entitled to have 
a handgun. The Brady presale check determines whether you fall into 
those categories, and they will deny you the right to buy a handgun if 
you do.

  Since its inception in 1993, 3 million sales have been stopped. It 
works. It is compliant with the Supreme Court, and it doesn't interfere 
with legitimate Second Amendment rights. It was passed in 1993. It is 
now 2019. Sellers of handguns have figured out a way to get around the 
1993 law with private sales, gun shows, and internet sales. We didn't 
have internet gun sales in 1993. We need to close those loopholes.
  Here is the situation. Some States have done this. In the States that 
have done it, we see that the results are favorable. There is less gun 
violence in those States that have passed universal background checks. 
However, let me just tell you about the State of Maryland. Of the guns 
that are recovered from crime scenes in Maryland, 53 percent are guns 
that were acquired in a State outside of Maryland. We need universal 
background checks in order to provide the types of results that can 
keep our communities safer by keeping guns out of the hands of people 
who are not entitled to have guns.
  How do the American people feel about this? There are 90-plus percent 
who believe that we should have universal background checks. Yet there 
has been no action on the floor of the U.S. Senate. The Republican 
leader will not bring the bill to the floor. This is a bill that should 
have been passed a long time ago. Every day that we delay, there are 
another 100 deaths from gun violence.
  We shouldn't stop there. We should deal with assault-style military 
weapons. When someone has one of these assault weapons, within a matter 
of seconds, he can shoot off multiple rounds and kill multiple numbers 
of people. Even if you have those who come to the rescue--if law 
enforcement is on the scene or people are able to deal with the 
circumstances--in a matter of seconds, you can already have multiple 
casualties. We need to get rid of these military-style weapons in 
private ownership.
  When you talk to law enforcement officers and ask them what they fear 
the most when they go into a situation in which someone is armed, it is 
the assault weapons they fear. It is not fair to our law enforcement 
officers, who put their lives on the line for us and who rush into 
harm's way, to allow for these types of weapons to be available to the 
general public.
  We can do something about it. Let us take up legislation that 
restricts the private ownership of assault-style weapons. There has 
been no action, though, on the floor of the Senate. The Republican 
leader will not bring up any issues on gun safety.
  I could add legislation with regard to the large-capacity magazines. 
We see that. They are used in mass shootings because you can shoot off 
multiple rounds without reloading. Again, as we have seen in mass 
shooting circumstances, it has added to the number of deaths. It is not 
inconveniencing the public to restrict that type of capacity from being 
out there, which is known to cause harm by those who want to create a 
situation of mass casualties. Again, there has been no action on the 
floor of the Senate by the Republican leader.
  We have bipartisan legislation that would identify those individuals 
who pose extreme risks so that there is a red flag placed on those 
individuals that prevents them from being able to purchase handguns--
bipartisan legislation. Our States are acting, but there has been no 
action on the floor of the U.S. Senate. The Republican leader will not 
even bring that up.
  We could go over a whole host of other issues, such as mental health 
and earlier identification--those types of services. There are a lot of 
things we can do. I would hope that the one option that would be off 
the table would be that of doing nothing, but that seems to be the 
Republican leader's preferred option--to let this issue rest without 
there being any action taken by the Senate. It has been over 200 days 
since the House of Representatives acted, but there has been no action 
here on the floor of the Senate.
  I urge all of my colleagues to impress upon the Republican leader 
that it is well past time for us to consider gun safety legislation. 
Let us bring these bills to the floor. Let us not wait for the 
President of the United States. We are the legislative branch of 
government. Let us act and do the right thing to keep our communities 
and our homes safer.
  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. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, let me join the Senator from Maryland in 
expressing my frustration. Many of us worked long and hard to be 
elected to the U.S. Senate, not just to represent our States but to 
respond to the challenges that face us in the United States. The 
challenge of gun safety faces everyone. Thank you to the Senator from 
Maryland for making that point on the floor of the Senate.
  Many people come to the Senate Galleries, sit in the chairs, and wait 
for the Senate to act. It is a long waiting game because, 
unfortunately, the Senate does little or nothing under the

[[Page S5590]]

leadership of Senator McConnell. I don't know why this Senator has not 
accepted the fact that the U.S. Senate has an important role to play. 
We speak for people not only in Illinois and in Maryland but for those 
all across the United States, and they are very concerned.
  In the recent trip home over the recess, I visited some of the areas 
around Chicago and in the city, and there were many conversations about 
the gun violence that we see across America. That gun violence has been 
punctuated by the horrible events in El Paso and Odessa, TX, and in 
other communities that have been affected by these mass killings. We 
have become numb, I am afraid, to the reality of gun violence in 
America. We have decided, I am afraid, that the Second Amendment to the 
Constitution is somehow holding us back--binding us and restraining 
us--from even doing the most basic things.
  Overwhelmingly, the people of America, by a factor of over 90 
percent--Democrats and Republicans--believe that we should have 
background checks. We believe that the people who have been convicted 
of violent felonies shouldn't own guns--period. We believe, as well, 
that when it comes to those who have serious mental instability, they 
should also be precluded from gun ownership. The laws do not allow us 
to adequately ask the question or to test whether the buyer has been 
convicted of a felony or has such a background.
  In the city of Chicago, hardly a weekend goes by without there being 
dozens shot and 9 or 10 or more losing their lives. Most of them are 
young people, but not exclusively. Older people, as well, are caught in 
the crossfire.
  People say: Well, I thought Chicago had these tough gun laws. What is 
going on there? Why do you have so many gun deaths?
  The answer is obvious for those of us who spend time in that great 
city. We are about 20 minutes away from northwestern Indiana and from 
the gun shows that are held there, where people don't ask questions 
when they sell firearms. All you need to do is to have the money and 
the open trunk of your car to fill it up with guns and drive them back 
to the city of Chicago. That is why no State can solve this problem. We 
need Federal legislation.
  As I talk to people across this country, they tell me the 
heartbreaking stories of sitting down with their children who have gone 
through some drill or program at school to forewarn them of what would 
happen if an active shooter were to come onto the premises. As we know, 
that reality is not beyond reach. In Connecticut, we saw a beautiful 
first grade class that was attacked by a killer with a weapon who took 
the lives of those children. If that scandalous massacre of children in 
a first grade classroom didn't move this Congress and this President to 
act, what will?
  The President said to me in a conversation several weeks ago that we 
are going to have a background check bill and that it will be the best 
in the history of the world. Well, I was skeptical when he said it. I 
am even more skeptical today. I knew what would happen. When the 
President had a choice between the public interest of gun safety and 
the special interest of the National Rifle Association, the National 
Rifle Association prevailed.
  This President refuses to come forward with any proposal, and Senator 
McConnell believes his hands are tied and cannot bring this issue to 
the floor of the Senate. He cannot run the risk that his Members would 
have to be on the record as having taken a vote, as they were elected 
to do, on an issue of this importance.


                                 S. 386

  Madam President, this is not the only issue that we are ignoring--the 
only issue that is, frankly, not even being considered on the floor of 
the Senate. There is another one that is equally important to me and to 
most people across this country, and that is dealing with the challenge 
of immigration.
  A few years ago, a bipartisan group of Senators--eight of us--I, 
Senator McCain, Senator Schumer, and others--sat down and wrote a 
comprehensive immigration reform bill. It was months of Republicans and 
Democrats sitting down, face-to-face, night after night, going through 
every section of our immigration code to come up with a comprehensive 
bill to deal with the obvious shortcomings, but we did it. We brought 
it to the floor of the Senate and it received 68 votes. There were 14 
Republicans who joined the Democrats to pass this comprehensive 
immigration reform. We sent it to the Republican House of 
Representatives, and Speaker Boehner refused to even consider it. So 
all of our effort and all of our work was really for nothing.
  We continue to face the challenge of immigration. We know what it is 
like at the border. Under this President, we have seen the worst border 
situation in modern times. His refusal to acknowledge the three Central 
American countries that are sending all of these immigrants to the 
United States has led to some horrible circumstances.
  Recently, the inspector general of Health and Human Services came 
forward with a report on the Trump administration's response to this 
border crisis. It was a report on the policy of zero tolerance. I am 
sure you will remember it. It was under Attorney General Sessions, and 
he somehow found a quotation in the Bible to justify forcibly removing 
children from their parents. We removed 2,880 children from their 
parents at the border under this zero tolerance policy before there was 
an uprising in the United States against it and before the President 
backed off of it.
  I commend the inspector general's report on what happened to those 
children--to every American. I saw it firsthand. I witnessed these 
children as they were being removed from their parents and the trauma 
they went through as a result.
  So why aren't we debating the immigration policy on the floor of the 
U.S. Senate? I am told that perhaps, later today, the junior Senator 
from Utah--at this point, I think he is the senior Senator from Utah--
will come forward with a unanimous consent request to consider fixing 
one part of the immigration problem. I want to fix that problem and 
many more.