[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 63 (Tuesday, April 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1884-S1885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Gun Violence

  Madam President, today, in Chicago, at the Lurie Children's 
Hospital--one of our best--little 1-year-old Kayden Swann is in 
critical condition, clinging to life in the pediatric intensive care 
unit.
  Last week, at 11 a.m., on a Tuesday morning on Lake Shore Drive--one 
of the busiest thoroughfares in the city--1-year-old Kayden was shot in 
the head while riding in the backseat of a car. He was an innocent 
victim hit in a road rage shooting
  As we pray for Kayden's recovery, as we express gratitude for the 
medical workers who are working around the clock to keep him alive, we 
have to ask ourselves a basic question: When it comes to this sickening 
gun violence that happens every day in our country, what are we going 
to do? Give up or stand up?
  On March 23, I held a hearing on gun violence in our Judiciary 
Committee. There was a mass shooting spree that killed eight people in 
Atlanta, GA, on the day I announced the hearing. Then there was a mass 
shooting in Boulder, CO, that killed 10 people the night before the 
hearing. Others have followed.
  Since that hearing on March 23, according to the Gun Violence 
Archive, there have been at least 38 mass shootings in less than a 
month in America, where a ``mass shooting'' is defined as an incident 
where at least four people were shot. This past weekend--and I am sorry 
to say this is not an exception--25 people were shot in the city of 
Chicago alone. Every day, we lose 109 American lives to gun violence. 
Hundreds more are shot and wounded, carrying physical and emotional 
scars for a lifetime. These victims are our neighbors, our friends, our 
families, and even a 1-year-old baby like Kayden Swann.
  I am glad President Biden is stepping up to this issue and taking 
action. Last week, the President stood in the White House Rose Garden 
and called gun violence exactly what it is. It is a public health 
crisis. He is right. We need to take a public health approach to reduce 
the violence that is killing so many of our fellow Americans.
  There is a playbook that works. We need to gather data and study the 
problem, identify causes and risk factors, and develop targeted 
prevention and intervention strategies that will help to bring the 
number of shootings down. We have stopped epidemics before--we are in 
the midst of one now--and we can do it again if we are willing to stand 
up and act. It works.
  President Biden took action last week and announced a set of 
commonsense steps that are consistent with the Second Amendment and 
that actually will help reduce violence. He wants to reduce the 
proliferation of homemade ``ghost guns,'' which are untraceable and 
often undetectable; regulate the use of stabilizing braces that can 
effectively convert pistols into short-barreled rifles, like the weapon 
that was used by the gunman in Boulder; put forth a model State extreme 
risk protection order law that would help States that want to use these 
interventions; restart an annual firearms trafficking report that 
tracks patterns of illicit gun trafficking; nominate a gun safety 
expert David Chipman to give the ATF its first confirmed leader since 
2015. I am going to pay special attention to this nominee because it 
will come through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
  How many times have you heard it said that we don't need new laws; we 
just need to enforce the laws that are on the books? One of the 
Agencies that enforces these laws is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 
Firearms, and Explosives, or ATF. What the gun lobby has done over the 
years is to make sure the ATF hasn't had the money or hasn't had any 
leaders. We haven't had anyone in the post for 6 years at the ATF with 
Senate confirmation. I want to change that if we can.
  Last, but certainly not least, the President announced billions of 
dollars for evidence-based community violence intervention programs 
through the American Jobs Plan and other grant program efforts. These 
are smart, targeted, and important proposals that are well within the 
bounds of the Constitution and the President's authority. I commend him 
for that action.
  Yet we shouldn't leave it to the President alone. We have a 
responsibility, too. We have to make sure we close the loopholes in the 
gun background check system that make it too easy for criminals and 
those with mental instability to get guns. We have known it for years, 
but we haven't

[[Page S1885]]

closed these gaps. The House has passed universal background check 
legislation. Now the ball is in the Senate's court. We need at least 10 
Republicans if all Democrats will support it. I hope my Republican 
colleagues are willing to stand and vote to close these gaps.
  There are other commonsense changes we can make that deal with gun 
violence and community prevention. At a hearing I held on March 23, Dr. 
Selwyn Rogers of University of Chicago Medicine pointed out that the 
NIH has nearly $43 billion for medical research, yet only $12.5 million 
dedicated to funding for research into reducing gun violence. We need 
to invest more into this research and into the CDC research, too. We 
also need to support evidence-based community programs that show they 
are effective in reducing violence.
  Saving lives from the horrors of gun violence should not be a 
partisan issue. It is absolutely heartbreaking to think about little 
Kayden Swann's sitting in the backseat of a car on Lake Shore Drive--
which I look out from my place in Chicago and see every day--and 
realize that he was shot in the head at the age of 1 and is now 
fighting to survive.
  The question is, What are we going to do with this challenge of 
40,000 gun violence deaths every year and more than 100 every day--give 
up or stand up?
  I will tell you that I am not going to give up. I am going to do all 
I can to push commonsense, constitutional reforms to bring gun violence 
to an end in America.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Murphy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.