[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 90 (Tuesday, May 24, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2669-S2670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, we are nearing the end of the 
session, when we will go back to our homes for the evening, but when 
the families of 18 children and 4 great educators go home tonight, 
their homes will never be the same again.
  There are no words in a place filled with words during today and 
every day in this place when we are in session. There are no words 
today to capture the heartbreak, the gut-wrenching grief and pain that 
those families will feel and that I remember feeling almost 10 years 
ago when we stood in the space just outside the firehouse in Sandy 
Hook, as parents learned that their 20 children would not be coming 
home that night.
  The same bottomless grief is hitting the families in Texas, in 
Uvalde, where they have lost children. And there are no words also to 
capture the deep, abiding pain that will last forever. That pain will 
be with them--a hole in their hearts, a place at their tables, a room 
in their houses that never will be filled again, and hugs that they 
will never feel, cheeks that will never be kissed.
  This Nation, like their families, is torn apart by violence--
needless, senseless gun violence--every day in America. And the mystery 
is why the greatest Nation on Earth continues to tolerate it. It is no 
longer surprising or stunning. It is no longer unfathomable or 
unforeseeable.
  It is incomprehensible that this great Nation is blocked by Members 
of this body from taking action that can forestall and prevent it. Why, 
the outrage that we feel, the grief that pervades America on these 
occasions has not caused action. And this body has been complicit by 
its inaction. In fact, it isn't this body. It is Members of this body, 
principally on the other side of the aisle. Let's be blunt. I will 
never forget hearing from that gallery those words: ``Shame. Shame on 
you,'' when we failed to adopt commonsense measures--a background check 
proposal, even though we had 55 votes. I can still hear those words. 
``Shame.''

  And had we acted, who knows what tragedy could have been averted? We 
don't know and we can't tell and we never will be able to fathom 
whether

[[Page S2670]]

specific measures would have prevented specific tragedy. Charleston or 
San Bernardino, Pulse or Las Vegas, Parkland or Santa Fe, or Pittsburgh 
or El Paso or Dayton or Boulder or Indianapolis or Oxford or Buffalo or 
Uvalde--we will never know because the false reason to object is this 
measure wouldn't have prevented that shooting.
  But that is not the way to approach gun violence reform, because we 
know there is no panacea; there is no single measure. What we know is 
that stopping gun violence requires that we act with these measures and 
that commonsense, sensible steps can prevent a senseless, needless 
violence.
  There is no panacea, but there are actions we can take. We are not 
without agency.
  Now, we need to be very blunt and recognize that opposition to these 
measures is bankrolled and emboldened and enabled by the gun lobby's 
dark money, by its threats and intimidation, by its encouragement.
  And until my colleagues have the courage to stand up to that gun 
lobby, they will continue in its thrall and its grip, and they will 
continue to be complicit.
  And some on our side, some who have demonstrated the courage to stand 
up and speak out, have shown that we have the power to take action.
  We lack facts about the shooter and about the killing, all the 
circumstances in Uvalde, but we know enough to say that those families 
and that community will be torn apart. It will never be the same. They 
will never be whole again because they have lost something precious, 
and there will always be that hole in their hearts.
  Already some of our Republican colleagues are saying we are 
politicizing the issue, but they are the ones who, for decades, have 
tied themselves to the NRA's fanatical devotion to unrestricted, 
unyielding firearms ownership for political purposes at the expense of 
real lives.
  Tying themselves to firearms ownership is unnecessary for law-abiding 
citizens to own firearms. There are commonsense actions we can take to 
separate dangerous killers from firearms that are absolutely consistent 
with the Second Amendment, as judged by the Supreme Court, and 
absolutely consistent with gun ownership by law-abiding people.
  We know these actions won't save everyone, but there can be no doubt 
that each of them will save some lives: expanding background checks and 
closing glaring loopholes in our background check system; getting 
untraceable ghost guns and military-style assault weapons off our 
streets; protecting domestic violence survivors from gun violence; 
keeping guns out of the hands of domestic terrorists and violent 
extremists and individuals who are dangerous to themselves or others, 
red flag statutes; preventing kids from accidentally and 
unintentionally shooting themselves with unsecured firearms, Ethan's 
Law for safe storage; investing in community violence intervention 
programs--we know they work in Hartford, New Haven, all around the 
State of Connecticut; reducing the number of firearm suicides--more 
than half of all gun deaths are suicides; red flag statutes, separating 
firearms from people who are dangerous to themselves as well as others.
  We need to do all these things and more. We need to do them right now 
because every day that passes without action means more of the same. 
Not surprising, not stunning--more of the same.
  Those measures are written, they are fully drafted, vetted for their 
constitutionality. My subcommittee on the Constitution has had hearings 
on them, many of them: S. 529, the Background Check Expansion Act; S. 
591, the Background Check Completion Act; S. 1558, the Untraceable 
Firearms Act to stop ghost guns; S. 736, the Assault Weapons Ban; S. 
527, the Protecting Domestic Violence and Stalking Victims Act; S. 
2169, the Lori Jackson-Nicolette Elias Domestic Violence Survivor 
Protection Act, a hearing just last week on it; S. 2090, the Disarm 
Hate Act; S. 4278, the Age 21 Act; S. 190, Ethan's Law; S. 2982, the 
Child Suicide Prevention and Lethal Means Safety Act; S. 1819, the 
Extreme Risk Protection Order Act--the red flag statutes.
  Let us do one of them. Let us vote to make one of them law. That is 
our job: to vote. It is how we change this gut-wrenching, heartbreaking 
status quo, and it is how voters know where each of us stand when push 
comes to shove.
  So we have no words, but words will mean nothing without action. We 
have created a political movement. It is a movement that is growing as 
young people say: Enough is enough, as the hand wringing and the tears 
are translated into action at the grassroots level, action by State 
legislatures. Almost 20 states now have red flag statutes in the wake 
of Parkland. And as communities and States show that they will no 
longer tolerate the hypocrisy of thoughts and prayers without action, 
all of us who have advocated for years--indeed, for decades--that this 
body must act, we cannot lose courage or heart. We cannot lose the 
hope, and we must match our thoughts and prayers with real action.
  I yield the floor.
  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. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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