[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 8, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2842-S2843]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today, the House oversight and reform 
committee heard from a witness who, by all means, should never ever 
have had to come before the Congress, Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old 
girl who survived the shooting in Uvalde, TX.
  Our House colleagues will also hear from Felix and Kimberly Rubio, 
the parents of 10-year-old Lexi, who was killed in the shooting. You 
can just imagine their broken hearts.
  They will also hear from the only pediatrician in Uvalde available to 
treat the victims on that awful, awful, awful day.
  I hope every single Member of the House and Senate pays attention to 
these proceedings. God knows, many in Congress need to listen to what 
these witnesses have to say.
  We need to listen, and Congress needs to act, because across every 
neighborhood, every school, every city, every town--urban, suburban, 
rural--Americans are wondering the same thing: When is Congress going 
to act to stop the violence?
  Now, that is precisely what we are working on right now in the 
Senate. It will be hard to believe, after hearing what these witnesses 
have to say, that the Senate cannot find a way to come together and act 
on gun violence.
  Over the past week and a half, my Democratic colleagues, led by the 
efforts of Senators Murphy, Sinema, Blumenthal, Manchin, Coons, 
Heinrich, and others, have been holding good faith talks with 
Republicans to see if we can arrive at an agreement on gun violence 
legislation.
  As I have said, these bipartisan talks deserve the space they need to 
produce meaningful results, and so I hope my colleagues continue to 
make progress toward an effective agreement--hopefully, by the end of 
the week.
  The overwhelming consensus of our caucus, among the gun safety 
violence prevention advocates and among the American people, is that 
even if we can't get everything done, that getting something real done 
is worth pursuing.
  Let me repeat that. It is an overwhelming consensus in this caucus, 
among the broad panoply of gun groups, gun safety groups, and among the 
American people: Get something done. Get something real done, even if 
it is not everything that many of us would wish for.
  Given the other side's long-held refusal to do anything meaningful on 
gun violence, we know how difficult this is. But that is all the more 
reason for us to explore every realistic opportunity to getting 
something real done.
  We know we won't get everything we want. The debate for gun safety 
will continue after this moment, but we have a moral obligation right 
now to try and get something meaningful--something meaningful--done for 
the American people in the name of those who have died.
  This is not a partisan issue. Gun safety is overwhelmingly backed by 
a large majority of Americans, a majority of Democrats, Republicans, 
Independents. It is bipartisan because all Americans know the same 
thing: We stand alone in the developed world in the number of mass 
shootings that take place every year. We stand alone among the 
developed nations in the world in that on any given day, another 
school, another grocery store, another hospital, another concert, 
another neighborhood can suddenly become a site of unimaginable 
tragedy.
  Americans, many for the first time, are thinking: I am going to be 
shot, whether they are in a supermarket, their kids are in a school, or 
anywhere else.
  And we stand alone in that year after year, the plague of mass 
shootings in this country has been met by inaction. When other 
countries have faced these mass shootings, they have acted, and they 
have acted well.
  Why aren't we?
  The American people are tired and angry of the same thing happening 
again and again. They are tired of nothing getting done. They are tired 
of the greatest country in the world being paralyzed and not acting in 
a right way, mainly because people on the other side of the aisle 
haven't joined us.

[[Page S2843]]

  But I urge my colleagues now, let's get something done. The sooner we 
act, the greater chance we have of preventing another senseless mass 
shooting in America. Let's break this cycle of gun violence, and let's 
end the days when parents, doctors, and children have to come to the 
U.S. Capitol in order to beg their elected representatives to take 
action.

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