[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3023-S3024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GUN LEGISLATION
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, when I returned to Connecticut after the
shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo, I saw
[[Page S3024]]
a level of fear on the faces of the parents and children whom I spoke
to that I have never seen before. This country has lived through mass
shooting after mass shooting, rising rates of homicide, but there was
something different in the eyes of these families as they once again
had to contemplate the idea that our schools are no longer safe places,
that our supermarkets are no longer safe spaces.
But they also were contemplating the idea that Congress was so caught
up in its own politics, so addicted to backing into our own corners
that we wouldn't be able to do anything meaningful about the thing that
matters most to parents and to families in this country: the physical
safety of their children. Think about it. What matters more to you than
the physical well-being of your children? You would give away
everything--your job, your car, the roof over your head--in order to
guarantee that your children were safe from physical harm.
So the anxiety and the fear that I saw in Connecticut and that I
think many of my colleagues saw when they returned to their States was
not just for the safety of their children but also a fear about the
ability of government to rise to this moment and do something and do
something meaningful.
I believe that this week we will pass legislation that will become
the most significant piece of anti-gun violence legislation Congress
will have passed in 30 years. This is a breakthrough, and more
importantly, it is a bipartisan breakthrough. I am glad to join my
friend Senator Cornyn on the floor today to talk a little bit about the
piece of legislation that our colleagues will be able to look at
hopefully in a matter of moments and that this body will be able to
consider this week.
I want to thank Senator Cornyn, Senator Tillis, and Senator Sinema in
particular. It was a hard road to get to this compromise, but nothing
worthwhile is easy. And nobody in a compromise gets everything they
want. This bill will be too little for many; it will be too much for
others. But it isn't a box-checking exercise. This bill is not window
dressing. This bill is going to save lives. This bill is going to save
thousands of lives. It is going to be something that every single
Member of this Senate who votes for it can be proud of.
I want to tell you a little bit about it, and some of this has
already been covered by my friend Senator Cornyn. First, let me talk
about the provisions in this bill that change our Nation's firearms
laws.
First, we are going to invest in the development of crisis
intervention orders. We are going to give money out to States that they
will be able to use to implement what are commonly called red flag
laws. These are laws that allow local authorities and courts to take
weapons, firearms, temporarily away from individuals who are
threatening to hurt themselves or others.
We just saw Connecticut's red flag law be used just in the last month
or so to take weapons away from a young man who was making threats to
shoot up schools, potentially saving dozens of lives.
Under this bill, every State will be able to use significant new
Federal dollars to be able to expand their programs to try to stop
dangerous people--people contemplating mass murder or suicide--from
being able to have access to the weapons that allow them to perpetrate
that crime.
As Senator Cornyn said, we will also make those dollars eligible for
a narrow range of other court-based anti-violence interventions--
something that was very important to our Republican colleagues.
Second, this bill is going to make sure that no domestic abusers can
purchase or own a gun. We are closing the boyfriend loophole. What we
know is that in States that have taken this step already, there are 10
percent fewer intimate partner deaths. This is an incredibly important
step forward. We know this provision alone is going to save lives of so
many women who unfortunately die at the hands of a boyfriend or an ex-
boyfriend who hunts them down with a firearm.
To be consistent with State felony restoration rights, this
legislation will allow individuals to be able to get their right back
after a period of time but only for first-time offenders and only if
there are no crimes of violence in the intervening time.
This bill will provide for enhanced background checks for younger
buyers. What we know is that the profile of the modern mass shooter is
often in the 18- to 21-year-old range, and so this bill has enhanced
background checks for those individuals, including a call to the local
police department--a process that can take up to 3 days and up to 10
days if there are particular signs of concern that investigators need
to perform followup on. That enhanced background check is going to make
sure that younger buyers who are in crisis have another check
performed--perhaps a short period of time in between their decision to
buy a lethal weapon to perform a crime and their ability to get that
weapon.
This bill has new criminal statutes banning gun trafficking and straw
purchasing. This is incredibly important for our cities. We have a flow
of illegal guns coming into these cities, and yet, for decades, for
some reason, Congress has not given our Federal authorities the ability
to interrupt these gun-running rings because we have no effective ban
at a Federal level on trafficking and straw-purchasing. We will after
we pass this law.
Finally, we clarify under this bill who needs to register as a
federally licensed gun dealer. One of the individuals who sold a weapon
to a mass shooter in Odessa, TX, should have been licensed as a Federal
dealer, but he wasn't, and he sold the gun to a person who was
prohibited from buying the gun because of his mental health history,
without a background check. We will clarify in this law that
individuals like that need to register as Federal firearms dealers, and
they need to perform background checks.
As Senator Cornyn said, this bill makes a historic investment in
mental health--a historic investment in mental health. Thanks to Debbie
Stabenow and Roy Blunt, we are going to be able to expand the certified
community health center model nationally. That literally means millions
of people in this country in underserved areas who have no access to
mental health are going to be able to get it after we pass this bill.
We have significant new funding in this bill for school-based health
centers to make sure that kids are better served, especially those kids
who are in crisis.
We have help in this bill for pediatricians who are trying to do
telehealth consults with behavioral health professionals who are trying
to get more training on mental health so they can help their patients.
Finally, we make investments in school and community safety, funds to
help schools make their campuses safer places but also funds for
community-based programs that are doing good work in cities from Boston
to Hartford to Dallas interrupting cycles of violence in our
communities.
For 30 years--murder after murder, suicide after suicide, mass
shooting after mass shooting--Congress did nothing. This week, we have
a chance to break this 30-year period of silence with a bill that
changes our laws in a way that will save thousands of lives. It is a
compromise. It is a bipartisan compromise. It is a path forward to the
way that both Republicans and Democrats can work together to address
some of the most vexing, most difficult challenges this Nation faces.
We have a chance to show parents and kids and families that we take
their safety seriously and we are prepared to do not just something but
something that saves lives in order to protect them.
I yield the floor.
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