[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 110 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4759-S4761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this week marked the official start of 
summer, and by all means, it should be a

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season of renewal in our Nation. But as we begin to emerge from this 
public health crisis of COVID-19, we find ourselves facing another 
crisis: an epidemic of gun violence in America.
  The gun violence we are seeing in America today is devastating, and 
it is the direct result of generations of underinvestment, policy 
failure, and cycles of trauma.
  Yesterday, President Biden spoke to the Nation about this challenge 
and laid out a clear strategy to keep our communities safe from the 
scourge of gun violence. The President has called for important reforms 
to crack down on gun trafficking and gun dealers who willfully violate 
the law. I agree with this strategy, and I will do everything in my 
power as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee to support it.
  Already, the administration has worked to rein in the proliferation 
of untraceable ghost guns. What are these guns? They are guns that can 
be ordered on the internet. They can be made in component parts with no 
serial numbers and are impossible to trace. The administration has also 
worked to issue regular reports on firearms trafficking patterns and 
trends and to promote model legislation to keep guns out of the wrong 
hands.
  These are all important steps, and so is the President's call for a 
major commitment of Federal resources to support community violence 
intervention programs, programs like READI Chicago, which supports 
members of the community who are most at risk for gun violence with job 
training and other support. These programs help save lives in our city 
of Chicago, and they desperately need Federal support. President Biden 
made it clear yesterday that he is committed to this.
  Every Monday, as sad as it is, the people of Chicago awaken to read 
the heartbreaking headlines about the toll gun violence has taken over 
the weekend. What was last weekend like in the city of Chicago? Fifty-
two people were shot, five fatally.
  Young children and babies don't escape this violence. More than 50 
children under the age of 15 have been shot in Chicago this year: 
Kayden Swann, 1-year-old, shot in the head while riding in a car on 
Lake Shore Drive; 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams was shot and killed at a 
McDonald's drive-through on the West Side in April; 14-year-old Savanna 
Quintero, who was shot and killed earlier this month by gang members in 
the Back of the Yards neighborhood. These children are just a few of 
the more than 1,500 people who have been shot in Chicago this year.
  Our city isn't alone in facing gun violence. We are seeing it across 
the Nation. And don't believe it is just a problem in blue States; red 
States face it too.
  While a shooting can happen anywhere, the fact is gun violence has 
disproportionately claimed the lives of Black and Brown Americans 
living in communities where it is often easier to find a gun than a 
good-paying job.

  I have visited schools across Chicago, and I have asked the students 
if they know someone who has been shot. In some neighborhoods, nearly 
every child's hand goes up. In fact, 90 percent of Chicago's homicides 
occur in neighborhoods where 60 percent of the city's youngest kids 
live and learn. And when their parents or siblings are shot, it causes 
damage that, unlike a bullet wound, cannot heal with time alone. 
Science shows us that trauma rewires children's brains and produces 
changes that can last a lifetime.
  I often ask audiences: Think about your youth. Think about one event 
in your life that you still remember to this day. I hope it was a happy 
one. I hope it wasn't a sad one. But think about the fact that no 
matter how old you are, something that happened when you were a tiny 
kid is still very fresh in your memory.
  Now think about a child who has witnessed a shooting or been the 
victim of a shooting. That is going to be with them for a lifetime 
unless we do something. Childhood trauma can make it harder for kids to 
learn and to form healthy relationships, and it can do serious harm to 
a child physically, mentally, and emotionally--harm that can change 
their lives.
  But with the right care and support, kids and victims of gun violence 
can deal with trauma and rise above it. Across Illinois, I have seen 
programs in schools, hospitals, community centers, and churches that 
provide the nurturing environments and treatments our children who 
experience trauma need to thrive.
  If we want to end the epidemic of gun violence, we need to invest in 
community-based solutions that end the cycles of trauma. Last week I 
joined Senators Capito, Duckworth, and Murkowski in introducing a 
bipartisan bill that will invest in those solutions: the RISE from 
Trauma Act. This bill would invest billions of dollars over the next 8 
years in community-based efforts to support children and families who 
have endured trauma.
  This aligns directly with what President Biden said yesterday and 
what he requested in his American Jobs Plan. It would help end violence 
where it begins--in environments where kids are neglected, abused, and 
left to fend for themselves.
  This legislation would fund counseling for gunshot victims and expand 
our trauma-informed workforce--doctors, teachers, social service 
professionals, community leaders--to help kids who have experienced 
trauma.
  I believe the RISE from Trauma Act will help offer a long-term 
solution to the epidemic of gun violence, but we also need to protect 
our families and neighborhoods in the short term.
  In addition to immediate steps it has taken, the administration is 
asking us to address violent crime. I have been working with leaders in 
my State to make additional resources available. Earlier this week, 
Senator Duckworth and I sent a letter to Governor Pritzker highlighting 
effective strategies for how to use more than $120 million in American 
Rescue Plan funds to help support targeted violence intervention 
efforts. These funds, which will help protect Illinois from violent 
crimes, are available now to help the police, to help the victims, to 
help the neighborhoods.
  When we talk about really caring and really wanting to do something 
to make a difference, I am sorry that I have to remind the Senate that 
this bill, the American Rescue Plan, passed the U.S. Senate without a 
single Republican supporting it, not one--not one Republican vote.
  To most effectively address the spike in gun violence, the Senate 
must also confirm the Director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 
Firearms and Explosives.
  I couldn't help but listen to the Republican leader who came to the 
floor to talk about David Chipman. He is a man who will be reported out 
of the Judiciary Committee and brought to the floor. He was considered 
today, in the Judiciary Committee--11 Democrats and 11 Republicans 
split along party lines on his vote. It was expected. But Senator 
Schumer can still bring his nomination to the floor.
  It is no surprise that the Republicans opposed him, but let's put it 
in context for a moment. How many times have you heard a gun debate and 
you heard someone say, ``We don't need any new laws, we just need to 
enforce the laws we have. Don't dream up some new law that's going to 
burden someone who is an innocent, law-abiding gun owner, enforce the 
laws we have.''
  So what Agency do we look to for that enforcement? Well, certainly, 
the Department of Justice. And where do they turn? They turn to ATF. 
That is the Agency that is supposed to keep an eye on how guns are 
being sold and whether the wrong people are buying them.
  Well, let's look at the leader of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and 
Explosives Agency under President Trump. I would like to give you his 
name or her name, but I can't because there was no leader. In 4 years, 
President Trump and Senate Republicans never put in place any single 
person to head this Agency. Was it an oversight, an accident? Far from 
it. Those who are on the side of increased gun rights at the expense of 
safety don't want anyone to lead this Agency. They want this Agency to 
go away.
  David Chipman, a man with over 20 years' experience in the field, who 
worked for this law enforcement agency and risked his life in doing so, 
has been nominated by President Biden to head the Agency. And the 
Republicans can't stand the idea. The fact that an actual law 
enforcement agency person who has this experience would lead the Agency 
just drives them wild to think about it, and they are opposed to it.
  Yes, it is true, he is for gun safety, and he has made it clear.

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  Let me tell you about a couple of radical ideas he had. He believes 
that we should keep guns out of the hands of felons and people who are 
mentally unable. Well, there is a radical idea when it comes to gun 
safety, so radical that 84 percent of the American people--some say 90 
percent of the American people, including a majority of gun owners--
support this idea, and so does Mr. Chipman. That makes him a radical in 
the eyes of some of our colleagues. To me, he is as mainstream as they 
come.
  When it comes to assault weapons, for example, he believes there are 
some guns that really have no place in the ordinary self-defense, 
sporting, and hunting world and can only be used as machines for 
killing. Over half the American people happen to agree with him. I do 
too. For that reason, many Republicans oppose him. They say, ``He's a 
radical, he's a zealot.'' I have heard all these words.

  He is a man who has lived his life through the ATF for more than 20 
years. He has the support of law enforcement and deserves a chance to 
lead this Agency.
  These ideas that he has--wouldn't it be wonderful if the U.S. 
Senate--think about that--the U.S. Senate could pass legislation to 
require background checks to keep guns out of the hands of convicted 
felons? The American people want it. We can't touch it.
  You ask people on the committee, on the Republican side: Well, what 
should we do about gun violence? They have got an answer. What is their 
answer? We need more guns in America. We need more people carrying guns 
in America. Two or three of the members of the committee today on the 
Republican side, Senate Judiciary Committee, were proud to speak about 
this issue of concealed carry. One actually said she carries a gun. I 
don't know if she does it in the Capitol Building. That is her 
business. But that is how far it has come, this notion that the 
solution to gun violence is more guns when 109 people a day are dying 
in America from gun violence. This isn't happening in other nations 
around the world. We are unique, and we should be embarrassed by this 
unique situation that we have so much gun violence and gun death in 
America.
  President Biden made it clear yesterday as well that this notion that 
he is for defunding the police is ludicrous. He called yesterday for 
billions of dollars to our police to do their job more effectively, and 
I support it. I want to make sure that the police who receive these 
funds are well trained and administer justice in a fair way and without 
the abuses that we have seen with the death of George Floyd and other 
instances.
  Yes, invest in that, but have the wisdom to understand that the 
police need helping hands as well. The police would gladly give the 
issue of domestic violence over to social workers and psychologists, 
who really could get into this situation and find an effective solution 
that doesn't risk lives and doesn't endanger the lives of the police. 
They need a helping hand, and we should give it to them.
  When it comes to law and order, I hear the Republican leader come to 
the floor and talk about the need for law and order, and I can't help 
but think it was just 2 weeks ago when he was given a chance to support 
a bipartisan commission to look into the worst lawlessness we have seen 
in the U.S. Capitol since 1813.
  On January 6, 2021, thousands coming from the speech by President 
Trump formed an insurrectionist mob and descended on this Capitol. I 
will never forget that day as long as I live, and, yes, we ought to get 
to the bottom of it. Who financed that? Who planned that? Who was 
behind that? There are serious questions to be asked and answered. Who 
stopped the bill with the filibuster for a bipartisan commission asking 
and answering those questions? The same Senator who was coming here a 
few minutes ago giving a speech on law and order. It doesn't follow.
  If Senator McConnell believes we should have law and order, it should 
start with the Senate Chamber and the Capitol Building. Isn't that our 
first responsibility as elected Members? Of course it is. What happened 
January 6 cannot and should not be swept under the rug.
  It is interesting to me, as I consider the nominees of the Biden 
administration and the reaction on the Republican side. Mr. Chipman was 
the latest victim of their attacks. Some on the political extreme even 
went so far as to doctor films so that it reflected the presence of Mr. 
Chipman at events he didn't even attend, events he had no business with 
as a member of ATF. That is the extent they will go to undermine the 
Biden administration's nominees.
  And I can't help but notice that when it comes to assertive women of 
color, that really drives many Republicans to a level of rage. Vanita 
Gupta. Kristen Clarke. These women are extremely talented, professional 
women with amazing resumes who are now luckily serving this Nation 
because of a vote in the Senate, but the opposition to them went way 
beyond anything that was rational or explainable.
  Senator McConnell said we shouldn't make ownership of guns more 
burdensome. I think that is generally right, but if making sure that 
convicted felons don't own guns is a slight burden on those who are 
legally entitled to own guns, I think it is not too much to ask.
  I am all for people exercising their Second Amendment rights to use 
guns safely, respectfully, follow the law, and store them, as well, in 
that same fashion, and to ask them to go through a background check to 
make sure they are qualified is not too much, and it saves lives in the 
process.
  The gun lobby tries to stop the Senate from confirming the Director 
of the ATF, but we are going to move forward and do it. There wasn't a 
Senate-confirmed Director under President Trump. In fact, there hasn't 
been one since 2015. This man, Mr. Chipman, is extremely well 
qualified--25 years of experience. He worked in the field in Virginia, 
Texas, and Michigan. He knows the Agency inside and out. He is the 
right person.
  Background checks--is that too much to ask? I don't think so. We 
should pass the bill. In March, the House of Representatives passed 
H.R. 8, a bipartisan bill to close the gaps in the background checks 
system. We ought to do the same.
  Addressing gun violence is a top priority of the Senate Judiciary 
Committee. In fact, the committee has already held four hearings on the 
topic. The first was the day after the mass shooting--the most recent 
mass shooting in Boulder, CO, that left 10 people dead. Sadly, 
unimaginably--listen to this number, Mr. President--that was just one 
of 299 mass shootings in America so far this year. That is more than 
one mass shooting every single day. What is going on? How can we 
tolerate that situation in our country?
  Yet, during the first hearing on gun violence in our committee, one 
of the Republican members of the committee described the hearing as 
``ridiculous theater.'' Ridiculous theater. Do you want to know what 
ridiculous theater really looks like? It is filibustering a piece of 
gun safety reform like universal background checks supported by 90 
percent of the people. It is calling for an enforcement of gun laws 
already on the books and blocking anyone from being confirmed who will 
do it. Ridiculous theater is tweeting slogans in response to a spike in 
gun violence rather than coming up with solutions.
  The Presiding Officer knows as well as I do and maybe even better 
that there have been too many funerals, too many lives lost to the 
scourge of gun violence. Can we get serious for one moment on a 
bipartisan basis and dedicate ourselves to reducing gun violence and 
saving lives in America? We have a President who is ready to lead us in 
that direction. I hope my other colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle will join Democrats in enacting legislation to keep America safe.
  I yield the floor.

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