[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1744]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Gun Violence

  Ms. SMITH. Madam President, I want to also just thank my colleague 
from Vermont for that lovely tribute to Judge Hall.
  I can see that he meant a lot to you and was a great public servant. 
So thank you, Senator Leahy.
  Madam President, in a year of so much heartbreak and grief and death, 
it almost escaped notice that we had gone in this country a year 
without a mass shooting in a public place.
  But now we face the grim reminder of our American reality. In the 
space of a week, two separate mass shootings stole the lives of 18 
people. And just weeks ago, we suffered a mass shooting in a health 
clinic in my home State of Minnesota.
  So here we are again, thrust into a familiar cycle of collective 
grief and frustration and anger. Our hearts break for the families and 
loved ones of those whose lives were stolen. Our voices cry out for 
change to end the scourge of gun violence. And our anger grows as our 
voices are ignored and we are told by Republican leaders that there is 
nothing that we can do to protect American lives from gun violence.
  Colleagues, it is our job to protect American lives.
  Today, I want to share with you the voice of Veronique de la Rosa. 
Her son Noah, just 6 years old, was murdered in his classroom at Sandy 
Hook Elementary, and she delivered this eulogy for her son at his 2012 
funeral.
  I am going to read it in its entirety so that it can be included in 
the Record, the Congressional Record, and can serve as a reminder of 
the human toll that our gun culture has taken.
  Veronique said:

       The sky is crying, and the flags are at half-mast. It is a 
     sad, sad day. But it is also your day, Noah, my little man. I 
     will miss your forceful and purposeful little steps stomping 
     through our house. I will miss your perpetual smile, the 
     twinkle in your dark blue eyes, framed by eyelashes that 
     would be the envy of any lady in this room.
       Most of all, I will miss your visions of your future. You 
     wanted to be a doctor, a soldier, a taco factory manager. It 
     was your favorite food, and no doubt you wanted to ensure 
     that the world kept producing tacos.
       You were a little boy whose life force had all the 
     gravitational pull of a celestial body. You were light and 
     love, mischief and pranks. You adored your family with every 
     fiber of your 6-year-old being. We are all of us elevated in 
     our humanity by having known you. A little maverick, who 
     didn't always want to do his schoolwork or clean up his toys, 
     when practicing his ninja moves or Super Mario on the Wii 
     seemed far more important.
       Noah, you will not pass this way again. I can only believe 
     that you were planted on Earth to bloom in heaven. Take 
     flight, my boy. Soar. You now have the wings that you always 
     wanted. Go to that peaceful valley that we will all one day 
     come to know. I will join you someday. Not today. I still 
     have lots of mommy love to give to Danielle, Michael, Sophia 
     and Arielle.
       Until then, your melody will linger in our hearts forever. 
     Momma loves you, little man.

  Veronique should not have had to eulogize Noah, her 6-year-old son--1 
of 20 children killed at Sandy Hook.
  So I ask my Republican colleagues to think of her when you suggest 
that families exaggerate their anguish for political gain.
  Just yesterday, one of my Republican colleagues dismissed this grief 
as ``theater.'' No. This is life and death.
  So I am angry. I am angry because I know that we have the power to 
stop this violence, and yet our Republican colleagues stand in the way. 
They refuse to work with us. They continue to put the demands of the 
NRA above the demands of the people we are elected to serve--that we 
stop this horrific gun violence, that we protect the people we are 
elected to serve.
  Madam President, we need universal background checks. We need to ban 
assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. We need to end this cycle, 
and we need all of us in Congress to find the strength and the humanity 
to take action.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.