[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 8, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2841-S2842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is hard really to know where to start. I 
am here on the Senate floor to talk about guns. In a world in chaos, we 
cannot forget about the chaos right here at home. Gun violence is 
killing our children: 19 students and two of their teachers in Uvalde 2 
weeks ago; 20 children, and 7 others, in Newtown, CT--nearly 10 years 
ago; 12 students and a teacher at Columbine--23 years ago. In between? 
Las Vegas, 58 dead; the Pulse nightclub, 49 dead; Marjory Stoneman 
Douglas High School, 17 dead--all victims of gun violence. And this is 
just a snapshot of the epidemic of gun violence in our country.
  I look back at my 48 years here in the Senate and say, When will we 
say enough? We hadn't yet finished honoring and celebrating the lives 
of the 10 victims in Buffalo before news broke of the tragedy unfolding 
in Uvalde--19 children, 2 teachers, massacred in their school, where 
they learn and work, where they should be safe--safe to just be 
children.
  This weekend, at least a dozen people were killed and 60 more injured 
in shooting incidents across the country. When is it enough?
  After Sandy Hook, well over decade after Columbine shook the Nation, 
the conscience of the country was stirred. Now, we said, now we must 
look at our gun laws. Now, we must think about what simply makes sense 
and what does not. The Judiciary Committee acted. I was proud to lead 
that, but the Senate did not. There were bipartisan proposals--
proposals that I believe can muster bipartisan support again today, 
support that acknowledges that there is a problem and acknowledges that 
we can and must do something about it. The problem is not the Second 
Amendment. The problem is the view that the Second Amendment is itself 
absolute.
  I was in Vermont last week, and people would say to me, Of course, we 
pray for the victims, but we also pray that Congress will finally stand 
up and do something.
  I am with my fellow Vermonters. I am a lifelong gun owner. I was on 
the target shooting team at St. Michael's College in Vermont, my alma 
mater--earned my letter in that. Millions of other Americans like 
myself, lifelong gun owners, are responsible gun owners and honor 
Americans' rights to own firearms and choose to own firearms to defend 
their families, or to hunt--but not to commit battlefield-style 
murders. To most Americans, firearms are valued for defensive purposes 
and not for murder and mayhem.
  There are ways that we can use our common sense to keep our 
communities safe and keep guns out of the hands of people who are 
dangerous. Let's start with background checks. They are a quick and 
easy way to help accomplish that goal. There is bipartisan support to 
require background checks for commercial firearms sales. Now, I think 
we should go further, but we have to start somewhere, and commercial 
sales background checks are a good start; background checks would help 
to bring common sense back into this discussion.

  How about extreme risk laws, also called ``red flag'' laws? We should 
encourage more States to enact these laws to allow loved ones or law 
enforcement agencies to petition a court for an order that would 
temporarily prevent an individual in crisis from accessing firearms. 
People who are in crisis and are a danger to themselves or others 
should not have ready access to firearms. This, again, is practical 
common sense.
  We have seen where criminal gangs will send people into other States 
to make straw purchases of weapons that are then sold back to them. 
There is no criminal statute specifically prohibiting straw purchasing, 
so prosecutors have to rely on laws that prohibit making false 
statements in connection with the purchase of a firearm--a paperwork

[[Page S2842]]

offense. There is bipartisan agreement that we should strengthen the 
penalties for straw purchasers to deter this dangerous conduct. This, 
again, is practical common sense.
  We should also add common sense and consistency to minimum age 
requirements to purchase guns. You have to be 21 to buy a handgun. You 
also have to be 21 to purchase alcohol or even cigarettes. But under 
our Federal laws? Just 18 to buy a shotgun or rifle, including an 
automatic rifle like those used on battlefields, like the ones used in 
Buffalo and Uvalde. And if we cannot find enough common ground to ban 
military-style assault rifles, we should at least raise the age at 
which they can be purchased from 18 to 21.
  All of these proposals are practical common sense; they should be the 
least that Congress can do to help prevent the next mass shooting. But 
we have a problem. We have a problem in the United States when the 
leading cause of childhood death in 2020 was firearms. Think of that. 
Our children and our grandchildren--and the leading cause of death is 
firearms.
  We have a problem when we cannot stand up--and together--to respond 
to the fears of our children. We have a problem when we cannot push 
aside the interests of the NRA and the gun industry or of the Gun 
Owners of America or other pressure groups that tell us that Democrats 
are ``coming for your guns.'' Of course, some of the gun industry will 
say that because it boosts their sales. It boosts their sales, and 
children die.
  I am a Democrat. I am a gun owner. I have been both, nearly my entire 
life. I have also been a prosecutor and prosecuted cases and went to 
death scenes at 3 in the morning and seeing people shot. I am also 
parent and a grandparent. I am a U.S. Senator. I am the Dean of the 
Senate, and I am a proud Vermonter. In my home State, we have a long 
tradition, dating back to our founding, of hunting the land. Ownership 
of our firearms is part of that. I have also heard from more than 1,000 
Vermonters since Uvalde, urgently telling me that something must be 
done.
  When is it enough? Everywhere Marcelle and I went last week in 
Vermont, we heard, When is enough enough?
  I have spent months--or actually years--listening to my friends on 
the Republican side in Congress talk about protecting children. Who 
will step up now and who will step in to say enough? If we are to 
protect our children, we must be the adults with the courage to listen 
to their fears and to act to alleviate them. We are the adults who must 
protect our children. We must protect our children. If we do nothing, 
we are not protecting them.
  This isn't about politics. This isn't about the moneyed interests of 
pressure groups, lobbying Congress without acknowledging the tragedies 
in our world today. This isn't even about you or me, Mr. President. 
This is about the thousands of people who are killed through gun 
violence every year and the countless family members forced to 
sorrowfully move on in their absence, saying, Why our family? Why our 
loved one? Why my parents? Why my children? Why my brother? Or why my 
sister? Why? In this, the greatest country on earth, our horrific 
record of gun violence.
  In no way is this about revoking the Second Amendment, but about 
applying practical common sense safeguards to help mitigate the 
violence.
  Yet again, I ask, as I have since I have been in the Senate, and the 
American people ask: When is it enough? When is it enough? I join those 
who pray for the victims, but I especially join those who pray that 
Congress will have the courage, Democrats and Republicans alike, to 
finally do something meaningful.
  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. SCHUMER. Mr. 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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