[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S375]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Mass Shootings

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today is Valentine's Day and a day we set 
aside to celebrate love, but far too many American families this day 
have haunting memories and unfathomable pain. They are the families of 
Americans killed by gun violence.
  Last night, the families of three Michigan State University students 
joined the heartbroken ranks. Five additional victims were wounded. It 
was the 67th mass shooting in the United States of America in this 
calendar year. February 14, the 67th mass shooting--more than 1 mass 
shooting every day this year. What is a mass shooting? When four people 
or more are injured or killed.
  No other nation on Earth accepts this wholesale slaughter that we 
have now become so inured to in the United States. We shouldn't be. 
Americans have seen too much carnage from guns. I am sick of it. This 
Nation is sick of it.
  Five years ago today, a 19-year-old gunman murdered 17 people and 
wounded 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, 
FL--the fifth anniversary of it, and we are observing the madness and 
slaughter that took place in Michigan. The gunman fired 
indiscriminately at Parkland, at students and teachers, and used a 
Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault rifle. The dead included 14 students and 3 
staff members who died trying to protect them.
  The Parkland shooting horrified our Nation. It cut especially deep at 
Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL, 65 miles outside of 
Chicago. You see, exactly 10 years ago on Valentine's Day 2008, a 
gunman armed with a shotgun and three semiautomatic pistols kicked open 
the door of an auditorium-style classroom at Northern Illinois and 
walked up and down the aisle, shooting people indiscriminately. The 
shooting lasted just under 6 minutes. When it ended, 5 students had 
died at Northern and more than 20 were injured.
  Six weeks into the year 2023, and already this year, at least 5,127 
Americans have died from gun violence according to the Gun Violence 
Archive. They died in homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings.
  Last year, Congress passed and President Biden signed the most 
sweeping gun safety law in 30 years--the Bipartisan Safer Communities 
Act. Among other things, it toughened background checks for gun 
purchasers under the age of 21 and cracked down on the trafficking and 
straw purchasing of firearms. It also included funding to help States 
implement red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of people who 
pose a danger to themselves or others. Just today, my home State of 
Illinois was awarded $9\1/2\ million in funding under the new law to 
help carry out Illinois' red flag law. That is progress. But the 
majority of Americans support even stronger gun safety laws, including 
closing the gaps in the background check system for gun purchases.
  I believe that Congress should also restore the ban on assault 
weapons, including AR-15-style rifles--increasingly the weapon of 
choice for mass shooters. These military-style weapons have no place in 
schools, neighborhoods, or college campuses.
  One month after the Parkland school massacre, student survivors of 
that slaughter organized a rally called March for Our Lives. Hundreds 
of thousands of people attended the march in Washington. One of those 
powerful speakers that day was a young woman named Emma Gonzalez, a 
survivor of Parkland. She warned Americans that day, ``Fight for your 
lives before it's someone else's job.''
  In America today, gun violence can strike any family, anywhere, 
anytime. Today on this grim anniversary, we must recommit ourselves to 
a better America, to do more to protect our kids, our schools, our 
communities, and our country from the scourge of gun violence.