[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17225-17226]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT TRAGEDY

  Mrs. BOXER. In my remaining remarks, I want to talk about what 
happened in Connecticut.
  First, to the Senators from Connecticut, I send all my strength. I 
have gone through things like this, although not quite the same. As a 
mom and grandma, I know all of our hearts are broken. So many people 
are touched by gun violence.
  I want to go back to July of 1993. A gunman with an assault weapon 
walked into a law office in San Francisco and killed eight people and 
wounded six. Just as we see in Connecticut, the stories of heroism came 
forward. One of the people who was killed was a brave young lawyer who 
threw his body over his wife's body, sacrificing his own life to save 
hers. That young man was one of my son's best friends. This was so long 
ago, but it feels like yesterday because time stops when these things 
happen.
  I know without a shadow of a doubt how these horrific and senseless 
tragedies live on with the survivors and all of us forever. The psyche 
of the parents, the spouses, the children, the families, and the 
friends is pierced forever.
  Yes, as human beings, after these tragedies we come together. We try 
to find meaning, we try to find justice, and we try to find love in the 
midst of the mayhem. Some find solace in their faith and their God, 
some find solace in their communities, and some never find solace.
  The slaughter of the innocent must stop. I say to my colleagues in 
Connecticut how deeply everyone has been touched by this tragedy. In my 
communities at home, people are running up to me and saying: Our hearts 
are breaking. He killed babies. They were barely on this Earth. They 
trusted us, and we failed them.
  Some of the people coming up to me are proud gun owners, and they are 
saying: Why couldn't we stop a sick person like this from getting a 
high-capacity clip? The gunman didn't even have to reload his weapon 
until he fired off 30 shots.
  There is the whole issue of protecting our schools, which is 
something I have cared about. I have a school safety act. I have 
introduced it so many times, and I will introduce it again.
  Instead of having an appointment with a mental health professional, 
this mentally ill young man had an appointment with death. People say: 
Don't talk about doing anything about this now; it is not the time. To 
them I say: When is the time?
  If we go back to 2009--that is the last year we have records--31,347 
people died from gun violence in our Nation.
  That is 87 people every day of the year. Another 73,000-plus were 
injured. So 87 people a day are killed by gun violence. When is the 
time to speak out? Because every day there is another tragedy.
  Without going into specifics, there are certain things we need to do.
  First, we have to take the weapons of war and high-capacity clips off 
our streets; second, we have to ensure that local law enforcement is 
involved in concealing carried permits; third, we have to close the gun 
show loophole so background checks are conducted; fourth, we have to 
keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and get them the help 
they need; five, we need to keep our schools safe by utilizing all the 
law enforcement tools at our disposal.
  We have failed our children. We have to stop worrying about our 
political skins because judgments will be made about us. So let's pull 
together. Let's show our children we love them, not just by telling 
them we love them--we must do that--but by showing them we will protect 
them.
  I send my love to everyone in Connecticut trying to pull themselves 
together. I send my love and support to my colleagues whom we will hear 
from now.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.
  I also wish to thank my dear friend and colleague from California for 
her words of support and comfort and resolve. We appear to be in one of 
those periods of time where we are walking too often through the valley 
of the shadow of death. Senator Blumenthal and I have come to the floor 
to speak about the tragedy that occurred; the senseless, horrific 
attacks on innocent people in Newtown, CT, last Friday.
  Mr. President, I note with extraordinary respect and a sense of loss 
the death of our truly beloved colleague Senator Dan Inouye of Hawaii. 
America, as Senator Reid and Senator Durbin made so clear, has lost a 
true hero, a patriot. This Senate has lost a great leader--a leader 
whose accomplishments have been literally historic. I think all of us 
have lost a friend.
  Last evening, Senator Akaka spoke about how Dan Inouye's legacy--I am 
paraphrasing--was all around Hawaii

[[Page 17226]]

and all he had done for the State. The truth is I think most every 
State in the country is full of legacies of the service of Dan Inouye. 
I know it is true of Connecticut.
  It was truly my honor to serve for 24 years with Dan Inouye. He was 
exactly the opposite of all the caricature pictures people have of 
Congress today and particularly about the rabid partisanship and 
personal incivility. Dan was a great gentleman and the most civil of 
people, the kindest and most decent of people. As Senator Reid said, he 
was a proud Democrat, a faithful Democrat but not at all partisan. The 
relationship he had with the late Ted Stevens on the Appropriations 
Committee was historic and actually inspirational. They were so 
different ostensibly in their background and in their temperament, 
particularly. Ted Stevens, bless his memory, was my neighbor and my 
dear friend. Let's say he had a--how do I describe it? He was a very 
emotional person. Danny Inouye was more calm. But they formed this 
remarkable friendship based on shared history, going back to World War 
II, and probably some sense of shared destiny in the sense they were 
both from the two last States to join the Union, not part of the 
continental United States, and came as the first Senators and were here 
so long. But truly what united them was an enormous dedication to 
America and patriotism.
  I said Dan Inouye's legacy is in Connecticut and probably most every 
other State. I could go around the State, and I am thinking of the 
years and years that Danny was the chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. There wasn't 
anything we were able to do for Connecticut in that time that he didn't 
support, including protecting Long Island Sound, the Connecticut River, 
improving our transportation systems, making grants to our schools, 
colleges, and universities, and support of the defense industries in 
Connecticut which have meant so much to the defense of our country but 
also to the economy of our State.
  I salute his memory. All of us should honor it and all of us should 
try in our own way to emulate this great man.

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