[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 211 (Monday, December 14, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7458-S7461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



               Eighth Anniversary of Sandy Hook Shooting

  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, 8 years ago this morning, I was in 
Bridgeport, CT. I had done an event early that morning with the mayor, 
and I was due to meet my wife and my two children--then 4 years old and 
1--on a train platform in Bridgeport to head down to New York City, to 
spend the rest of that Friday afternoon with my young kids, their first 
chance to see the Christmas decorations of the city.
  I received a phone call while on the train platform telling me that 
something had happened in Sandy Hook, CT. Sandy Hook is a section of 
Newtown, CT.

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  I debated whether or not to still go down to New York, but as the 
news started to become more clear, I got in the car and headed up to 
the firehouse just down a short road from Sandy Hook Elementary School, 
where an emergency response effort was gathering.
  It was there that 20 parents found out what had happened inside that 
school, as the rest of the world was finding out that same gruesome 
news.
  That was 8 years ago today--mark today--that tragic anniversary of 
the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
  Since that day, I have gotten to know those families--the mothers and 
the fathers of the children who were killed, the daughters, the 
siblings of educators who were killed. There were six educators inside 
Sandy Hook Elementary School who lost their lives that day--heroes all. 
There were 20 children. I have also gotten to know the community of 
Sandy Hook even better than I ever had during my 6 years representing 
them in the House of Representatives.

  Sandy Hook was and is a miraculous place. As much as the world saw 
evil that day, perpetuated by a young man named Adam Lanza, what 
happened in the hours and days, weeks and months following, in and 
around Sandy Hook, told us what really sits inside of us, and that is 
an indescribable goodness, an ability to meet evil with all sorts of 
generosity that poured on to Sandy Hook from all over the world in big 
ways and small ways.
  Teddy bears were sent in to Sandy Hook by the thousands in the days 
and weeks afterward. A fund was set up for the families of the victims. 
Millions of dollars went into that fund to help pay for the college 
educations of the brothers and sisters who were left behind. The 
community wrapped its arms around those families, around the first 
responders. And while Sandy Hook will never ever be the same ever 
again, I was able to see firsthand what truly lies inside all of us.
  Over the last 8 years, we have tried to make good by the memory of 
those kids. There is no way to fill that hole, but I have watched as 
communities have been changed through the generosity that has come out 
of that tragedy. Almost every family established a unique not-for-
profit that is doing all sorts of incredible work, all sort of based in 
many ways off of the loves of those children.
  There are charities that are building playgrounds for kids who love 
to climb and swing. There are charities that are providing access to 
animals for young kids in need, in memory of the kids who died that day 
who loved animals. There are charities that are building social-
emotional help, trying to make sure that you never ever get in a 
situation ever again where a young man like Adam Lanza feels so 
separated from society, his community, his peers, and reality that 
someone thinks to do what he did. Just on the charitable side of the 
equation, there is so much over the last 8 years that has happened that 
has changed people's lives, that has saved lives, because of what those 
families and what the community of Newtown has done.
  There has been policy change as well. We passed the Mental Health 
Reform Act in the U.S. Senate and in the House, and it was signed into 
law, one of the last things that President Obama did before he left 
office.
  Of course, we have had an ongoing conversation about the way in which 
we change our gun laws. Many of us in Connecticut have strong feelings 
that if Adam Lanza wasn't able to get his hands as easily on a semi-
automatic military-style weapon, he may not have ever made the journey 
to that school that morning. So we continue in our work to try to reset 
the gun laws of this Nation to try to make sure that no tragedy like 
that ever happens again simply because of ease of access to a weapon of 
that power.
  About a month after that shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School, I 
had the chance to visit a community center in the North End of 
Hartford. I had just been sworn in as a Senator. The tragedy in Sandy 
Hook happened after my election to Senate but before I had been sworn 
in. After I was sworn in to the Senate, I went to a community center in 
the North End of Hartford where I met with the families of the victims 
of gun violence from that neighborhood. By the time Sandy Hook had 
happened in 2012, 20 young men and women had lost their lives to 
gunfire in Hartford. As for the families that we met that day, their 
hearts grieved deeper than anyone else for the families in Sandy Hook 
because they knew what that pain is like. They had lost sons and 
daughters themselves. But they were also furious that the whole country 
was waking up to the epidemic of gun violence in this country after 
Newtown when it had been happening in Hartford and Bridgeport and New 
Haven and New Orleans and Chicago and Los Angeles and Baltimore for 
decades without much action and without much attention from the 
mainstream news media or from those in power.
  Many of us had to reconcile the ways in which we had spent our public 
career in the weeks and months after Sandy Hook. I am embarrassed by 
the fact that I didn't do more when I was in the House of 
Representatives, that I didn't do more when I was in the State 
legislature, to try to address the epidemic of gun violence in this 
country, wherever it happens. There were many people in this Chamber 
who stood up in the wake of Sandy Hook and decided that they were going 
to lead--people like Pat Toomey and Joe Manchin--in ways that they 
hadn't led before.
  I think we have all had to reassess our priorities. We have all had 
to think about whether we measured up to this moment that we live in 
today, where 100 people died from gun violence and a lot of kids who go 
to school around this country just expect that, at some point in their 
young lives, they will be met with a mass shooting. So we come here 8 
years later, and we try to measure what has happened. Have we made 
enough change? And we try to recommit ourselves to these ideas moving 
forward.
  I am proud of many of the things we have done. I am proud of all the 
charitable efforts, and I am proud of the Mental Health Reform Act, and 
I am proud we have put more money into school safety. I am proud that a 
lot of private-sector entities have stood up to stop weapons from being 
carried into public spaces.
  But I am also furious. I am also furious that there are easy, popular 
things that we could be doing to stop the likelihood of another Sandy 
Hook, to reduce the level of gun violence that happens in our city, and 
we choose not to take those steps.
  Now, universal background checks wouldn't have saved the lives of 
those kids in Sandy Hook, but those parents came here and lobbied for 
that legislation in 2013 because they know that, if that legislation 
was in place, there would be a whole lot of other kids alive throughout 
this country because the flow of illegal guns would be stunted into our 
cities and many of our neighborhoods.

  Those families in Sandy Hook don't necessarily care how it gets done. 
They just want to make sure that there are less parents that ever have 
to go through what they have gone through. And despite the fact that 95 
percent of Americans support something like universal background 
checks, we still haven't done it here--an example of where democracy 
just doesn't seem to be working.
  So we still have lots to do. I am sure I will get the opportunity 
over the course of 2021 to talk a lot about the path forward on 
changing our gun laws.
  But the final thing that I want to say today, before I yield the 
floor to Senator Blumenthal, is that for those Americans who haven't 
had to come face-to-face with a tragedy like that, maybe for those who 
haven't been around that kind of pain and sorrow, maybe it is a little 
bit hard to understand perspective. One of the things we have tried to 
do in the last 8 years is, on this day--the 1-year, the 2-year, the 3-
year, the 4-year, and now the 8-year mark--to just ask people on this 
day to go out and do something nice for a friend, for a relative, for a 
stranger. Just act in a kind, generous way, and maybe, over the course 
of the next year, make it a habit to do a little bit more than you 
would have done otherwise to help people in and around you in the ways 
that people helped the community of Sandy Hook--the parents, the 
relatives--in small and big ways in the wake of the tragedy 8 years 
ago.

[[Page S7460]]

  When you are around that kind of loss and pain, when you think about 
what it is like to lose a child, I think it helps to give some 
perspective as to what is really important in this world.
  We have a habit in this business to treat each other unkindly, and I 
am guilty of that, just like everyone else in this body is. Especially 
these days, we tend to fall into this trap too easily in which we 
assume bad motives of folks who just think differently than us. There 
are some folks out there today who won't go to businesses that are 
owned by Republicans or won't associate themselves with folks who might 
have more progressive views than they have. Politics matter. Don't get 
me wrong. But there are things that matter more than politics. And when 
we think about what those families are going through today as they are 
forced to relive the events of that day at Sandy Hook Elementary 
School, we should be reminded of how lucky we are to still be on this 
Earth; for those who haven't endured that kind of loss, how lucky we 
are to still have our children by our side. And we should remember that 
kindness, treating people respectfully, understanding what is important 
in the long run--family, friendships, relationships--that is one of the 
lessons, I hope, of Sandy Hook.
  So this is never a fun day to come down to the floor and mark the 
anniversary of Sandy Hook, but I want to finish by just saying thank 
you to the parents and the families for letting Senator Blumenthal and 
I into their lives.
  I have these friendships, these bonds with those families today that 
I never expected but now may be more meaningful to me than any other 
relationships that I have. And I do have strong words often for my 
colleagues about our unwillingness to make change in this body, but it 
is because, when my public service is done, the measure of whether I 
succeeded or failed, to me, in many ways is in the hands of those 
families. Whether they think that I have made a difference to honor the 
memory of their children is probably what will matter to me more than 
anything else when I hang up my public service spikes a few years from 
now--5 years from now, 10 years from now.
  I thank them for enduring this pain, for reaching out to those of us 
in positions of leadership to help guide us, and for finding all sorts 
of ways to lift up the light and the memory of their children, of their 
parents, of those that fell 8 years ago today in Sandy Hook.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, let me begin where Senator Murphy so 
eloquently finished.
  One of the great honors of my life has been to know and cherish the 
friendship of the wonderful parents and loved ones of those 20 
beautiful children and sixth grade educator that perished 8 years ago 
today. And I have been proud to work with Senator Murphy, a true 
champion of stopping gun violence, in our efforts over these last 8 
years.
  That day began for them as it has begun for all of us as parents--for 
me as a parent of four, for Senator Murphy as a dad of two--making 
breakfast, dropping off kids, heading to work. Among the beautiful 
holiday ornaments that decorated Newtown and Sandy Hook on that day--it 
was a normal day, until it wasn't. It was a normal day until those 
minutes when life changed irreparably for those parents and loved ones 
and for us.
  Yes, I had championed the cause of gun violence prevention for years 
before that day. As State attorney general, I began lawsuits; I 
supported the cause of banning the assault weapons in Connecticut and 
defending that ban in our State courts. But that day changed us 
forever.
  We went to Sandy Hook, and what we saw was unspeakable grief, pain, 
and anguish that still haunt me. What I saw that afternoon will stay 
with me not just as a source of grief and pain but also as a cry for 
action, as an undeniable mandate for action to honor with action those 
beautiful lives--to honor them not just with words, speeches, rhetoric, 
but with real action.
  For all of us, random acts of kindness are within our reach. Those 
acts of kindness to commemorate the gentle beauty and grace and 
dignity, the love and laughter, the futures that were lost--that is not 
just an expression of pain and grief; it is a moral imperative.
  With grief comes trauma and lifelong scars that never fade. But what 
I saw in those hours after that brutal, unimaginable massacre was also 
unspeakable goodness--the first responders who came and saw the carnage 
that brought tears to their eyes, the fire and police service, the 
community leaders, the men and women of faith. Father Bob Weiss, now 
monsignor, brought us together that evening in St. Rose of Lima Church 
when the grief and pain were raw, as raw as the cold of that winter 
night, and so many came--in fact, so many that they couldn't fit in the 
church. They heard it by loud speaker outside, and I said: The world is 
watching.
  In fact, the world watched with awe because Sandy Hook came to show 
the resilience and courage and strength of those families who have 
championed this cause of preventing gun violence but also launched 
foundations and philanthropic efforts in the names and memories of 
their children to do good and to change lives for the better. They are 
resilient and strong like Newtown is resilient and strong.
  This morning, in a vigil done virtually, led by Connecticut Against 
Gun Violence, we celebrated the lives not only of those 20 beautiful 
children and sixth grade educators but everyone in Connecticut over the 
past year who has died from gun violence because no community is immune 
from it. It strikes every neighborhood and area of our State and of our 
country. So honoring with action is something that we must do in this 
body.
  One of the memories that also haunts me is of the day when we came 
within a few votes of passing a universal background check bill--almost 
55 votes but not enough to reach 60, a majority of the Senate but not 
enough for cloture. And from that Gallery, literally, came the shout: 
Shame. Indeed, shame--shame on us in the U.S. Senate for being 
complicit in the continuing deaths of thousands over these past 8 
years, thousands that could have been prevented, and thousands that 
have our culpability. Shame on us for failing to honor with action and 
to move forward on universal background checks and emergency orders--
emergency risk protection orders. Those two steps keep guns out of the 
hands of dangerous people who would do harm to themselves through 
suicide, as well as to others in the shootings that take place on our 
streets and our neighborhoods.
  Connecticut has led the way on those measures and others--Ethan's Law 
for safe storage, a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, 
ghost gun bans, and other measures that essentially make our 
neighborhoods and lives safer. But even Connecticut, with the strongest 
gun measures in the country, is no safer than any State with the 
weakest because guns have no respect for State boundaries. They cross 
State lines, and the ``crime guns'' that come into Connecticut are the 
source of those shootings that kill our people.
  So there are simple, straightforward steps that we can take--
commonsense measures, including stopping the nearly complete, 
unprecedented immunity of gun manufacturers from any legal 
responsibility and making sure that they bear liability for the deaths 
that they cause.
  Our lives have never been the same since Sandy Hook. But in the wake 
of that tragedy--as well as Parkland, Las Vegas, Charleston, El Paso, 
Orlando, and Pittsburgh, and countless others, mass shootings, 
individual deaths--there has grown a movement, and it is a movement led 
by young people and by people who care about this cause without 
partisan politics. It is a new generation of leaders. It is a movement 
born of that grief and pain and anger--the fury of knowing that 
democracy is not working, the tenacity born of the injustice of those 
deaths and injuries and trauma. They are fighting to make sure that 
what happened at Sandy Hook or any of those other places never happens 
again. It is a new class of heroes, and their time is now.
  Their organizations are diverse: Moms Demand Action, Students Demand 
Action, March for Our Lives, Giffords, Connecticut Against Gun 
Violence, Newtown Action Alliance, and Sandy Hook Promise. These are 
just a few of them, and they are a movement, and they are causing a 
change in the

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consciousness of America so that now more than 90 percent of Americans 
support universal background checks
  A comparable number support emergency risk protection orders known as 
red flag statutes. Seventeen States now have them and increased 
substantially after Parkland, and they are not alone. They are joined 
by survivors from countless communities--too many communities. They are 
joined by law enforcement officials, first responders, and emergency 
room nurses and doctors who have the firsthand education about what gun 
violence does to a human body and a human mind. They are joined also by 
advocates and activists and community leaders from every community 
across the country because this epidemic affects everyone. They are the 
true leaders of this movement, and I am proud to stand with them today 
as I do every day.
  My hope is that a new Congress will break this complicity and that we 
will move forward, that a new Congress will break the inaction, and 
then a new President will change the dynamic, not only in this Congress 
but in the country, and take advantage of the historic opportunity we 
have.
  With a new administration, we have not only this momentous 
opportunity but also a moral imperative. We have that opportunity to 
enact strong, commonsense gun violence prevention measures and, in 
addition, although no substitute for legislative action, strong 
Executive action to enhance the effectiveness of background checks, to 
stop the spread of ghost guns, to take other measures that are within 
the power of the President alone, and to make sure that we explore and 
use every possible opportunity.
  The States will continue acting alone if the Federal Government fails 
to join them. States like Connecticut and others around the country who 
want to protect their citizens will continue to be proactive.
  We mark this painful anniversary with renewed resolve--resolve to 
continue to honor, with positive action, those whose lives were lost at 
Sandy Hook but also to redouble our efforts to educate and enlist our 
fellow citizens. It is long past time; 8 years is a long time--much too 
long for this inaction.
  Our hearts still ache. Our anger still burns. Our grief and pain are 
still there. For those families, they will never go away. But make no 
mistake, this pandemic is no excuse for inaction. If anything, COVID-19 
has raised the number of gun purchases and increased the number of guns 
posing dangers in our neighborhoods. It has heightened the stress and 
anxiety of people who might use those guns in incidents of domestic 
violence. It has expanded the jeopardies of suicide and self-
destructive behavior.
  We have no excuse for inaction because of the pandemic. We have every 
reason to feel a greater sense of urgency now, in the midst of this 
pandemic, to stop the epidemic of gun violence.
  Let us draw from the strength and fortitude of these brave families 
and loved ones--not only in Sandy Hook but survivors and loved ones 
everywhere--and say, finally, boldly, unapologetically, that enough is 
enough. Enough is enough.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.