[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5294-5298]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         SAFE COMMUNITIES, SAFE SCHOOLS ACT OF 2013--Continued

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, my colleagues, the week is finally here 
when we come to the floor to have votes on a piece of legislation we 
have been waiting on for decades. This Chamber is finally talking about 
what we can do to stop the plague of gun violence which has rippled 
through every single corner of this country.
  As I watched these mass shootings play out over the course of the 
last 10 years--whether it be in Colorado or Arizona or Virginia--we 
think to ourselves that this is just something we are watching. This is 
just something that has happened somewhere else to someone else. We 
never think it could happen to us.
  I will never forget that day I was in Bridgeport, CT, and it was 
right before Christmas. We were getting ready to take a train so I 
could bring my two little boys, along with my wife, to look at the 
pageantry of New York City. That was the day I got the call that there 
had been a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
  I thought it must have been a mistake. I thought, well, to the extent 
there is something going on at Sandy Hook Elementary School--this quiet 
hamlet in western Connecticut--it must be some disgruntled employee who 
walked in and had a grudge.
  What I learned over the next few minutes during the half-hour drive 
to Newtown made my blood freeze. I learned this was a mass shooting 
involving dozens of adults and kids. I realized it was now happening in 
my neighborhood, in my State, in my town.
  Unfortunately--as I stood at the firehouse where the community 
gathered that day and all the parents stood waiting for their children 
to come back or not come back from that school--I realized I had way 
too many colleagues I could call upon for advice on how, as an elected 
official, to deal with a tragedy of this magnitude. I could call my 
friends in Arizona, I could call my friends in Colorado, or I could 
call my new colleague, Governor Kaine, from Virginia. There were too 
many places to turn, and it happened to us in Connecticut in a place we 
never, ever thought would be subjected to gun violence. We are finally 
at the tipping point on a debate of what we can do. Through all of the 
back and forth this week and last week about whether we would have a 
vote on this floor or would we have to overcome a filibuster, could we 
come to a compromise on background checks, would we add provisions to 
ban high-capacity magazines, underneath it all are these victims. There 
have been thousands of victims. There were the little girls and boys in 
Newtown, but also 16-, 17-, 31-, and 68-year-olds from across the 
country who have been gunned down over the course of the last several 
decades without this body raising a finger to try to make things 
different. Well, it is time for those victims' stories to be told.
  As I did last week, I will be on the floor this week so I can share 
the stories of victims of gun violence. I will tell stories of lives 
which were cut way too short because of guns, and, in part, because 
this body has not been serious enough to stand up and do something 
about it.
  I want to start this afternoon's remarks by returning to the place 
where it all started for me, and that is Sandy Hook Elementary School. 
There are 26 stories to tell of the people who lost their lives at that 
school that day, and I think I have gotten to about 20 or 21 of them. I 
will talk about the last few stories. It is unbelievable.
  I have not had a chance to tell the story of Anne Marie Murphy, even 
though I told the story of what she did that day on the floor at least 
once. I just shared her story with my Democratic colleagues.
  Before that fatal day, Anne Marie Murphy was an amazing person. Anne 
Marie was a special education teacher, and she loved her work. She 
sought out working in the area of special education because she knew 
she had a talent, as so many of her students and the parents who worked 
with her found out. They knew she had a talent for reaching out and 
touching little boys' and little girls' lives.
  In fact, it is not a coincidence that a number of the kids who were 
killed in Sandy Hook Elementary School that day were kids with autism 
because Sandy Hook was known as a school that had a talent for reaching 
out to kids on the autistic spectrum. And Anne Marie was part of that 
story. She was a special education teacher. She was a mother of four 
wonderful children: Kelly, Colleen, Paige, and Thomas. She grew up in 
Katonah, NY. She graduated from St. Mary's School there before 
attending JFK High School in Somers, NY. Then she got her degree in 
Connecticut at a school that actually was in the process of educating 
one of the other teachers who was killed that day, Victoria Soto. 
Southern Connecticut State University is where she got her degree.
  She was remembered by her friends and family as sweet, happy, 
outgoing, and caring, and all of those characteristics came into play 
that day. I shared this story with my colleagues last week and then 
behind closed doors today, but I will share it quickly again.
  That day, Anne Marie Murphy had in her charge a little boy named 
Dylan Hockley. When the bullets started flying, Anne Marie took Dylan 
into her arms and did her best to comfort him and perhaps shield him. 
When the police came into that classroom, that is how they found Dylan 
and Anne Marie--in each other's arms. To the Hockleys, the fact that 
there was some small measure of love being expressed to Dylan in the 
last horrible moments gives them some small measure of peace. She died 
a hero doing what she did best.
  Anne Marie had been doing this for awhile, but she had a lot of years 
to give. She was only 52 years old. She could have continued to change 
the lives of children in need, children with autism, for another 10-
plus years. Just think of all the lives she could have affected. How 
many more Dylan Hockleys could she have found and nurtured and helped 
work through their autism? We will never get to know. She was killed 
that day.
  Grace McDonnell's parents are amazing. They have been down here to 
Washington a number of times already.

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They have led a lot of the debate in our communities in Connecticut 
about what we do to change the issue of guns and gun violence. They do 
so because they lost their daughter Grace McDonnell that day.
  Grace was 7 years old when she died. Grace had asked for a purple 
cake with a turquoise peace sign and polka dots when she turned 7. That 
is what she wanted, I guess, for her birthday, was that purple cake. 
She loved the color purple and she loved the color pink, as so many of 
these girls did, and her funeral, which I had the honor of attending, 
was just buried in pink.
  Grace loved the beach. One could always find Grace McDonnell on the 
beach. She loved country music. Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney were 
amongst her favorites. She played soccer. She participated in 
gymnastics. She had a dog, Puddin', that she absolutely adored.
  She was a very kind, wonderful little girl, so her parents have tried 
to think of the ways, big and small, in which they can try to pass 
along the kindness their 7-year-old little girl Grace showed for the 
world. They have done that by trying to explain to this country who she 
is. They have done that by taking all the art she produced--Grace was a 
fantastic artist, and many of us have pieces of original art that Grace 
McDonnell did hanging on our walls in our offices or at our homes. But 
the McDonnells do small things. Following her memorial service, they 
stopped at a local restaurant and they ordered a cupcake for every 
patron who came into the establishment that day--white cake, chocolate 
frosting, pink and white sprinkles--just to do a small little thing to 
spread Grace's love throughout this devastated community.
  Coincidentally, it was after Grace's funeral that I received word 
that the NRA was going to oppose virtually everything we did. Up until 
that moment, I had hoped the NRA was going to be a partner with us. I 
remember walking out of Grace McDonnell's funeral--amongst the dozens 
of wakes and funerals I went to over those 2 weeks--and getting a copy 
of the NRA statement handed to me. It was that day that I understood we 
were in for a fight, one a lot of us who were in the midst of that 
grief didn't expect we were going to have. We thought Newtown was going 
to bring us all together. Unfortunately, for some, it has not.
  Allison Wyatt died that day. Allison was 6 years old. Allison was an 
overwhelmingly kind girl.
  All of these little boys and girls were kind because, frankly, that 
is what most little boys and girls are when they are 6 and 7 years old. 
They are wonderfully kind. This tragedy kills us inside because we know 
that 6- and 7-year-olds remind all of us about what we want to be.
  Allison once gave her snack to a hungry stranger on a plane. She gave 
it away as a simple act of kindness. She had a passion for drawing. She 
wanted to be an artist when she grew up. She would cover the walls of 
her house with her drawings, turning every room in the Wyatts' house 
into her own little art studio. In fact, just before her death, she had 
drawn a picture for her teacher Victoria Soto, and she had written on 
that picture, ``I love you, Love, Allie.'' Both Victoria Soto and her 
student Allison Wyatt died that day. Her daycare teacher said of 
Allison that ``she would come and put her head down on your shoulder if 
she was upset. It would make her feel better. She was just such a sweet 
and caring girl.''
  Twenty-six teachers and students died that day in Sandy Hook, and we 
will remember every single one of them. Twenty-eight people died that 
day, and we have to remember that. As much anger and often hatred as we 
have for the shooter and as much confusion as we have about his mother 
and the questions we ask about why she would give him access to those 
kinds of weapons, knowing how troubled he was--28 people did die that 
day, 26 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. But here is the thing. 
Every day more than that die in this country from gun violence. Every 
day, on average, 30 people die from gun violence across this country.
  I have had this chart up for the last week, and it is hard to read if 
the viewer is in the gallery or in this Chamber or watching from 
somewhere else because each one of these little figures represents 
someone who has been killed by guns since December 14, 2012. In the now 
almost 4 months since that day--I think it is over 4 months now--over 
3,400 people have died from guns all across this country.
  We, as a legislative body, over the past several decades, seem to 
have become immune to the everyday gun violence that happens. We are 
just sort of used to picking up our local paper and reading about 
another shooting, reading about another victim, such as those who have 
died in my State, in New Haven and Hartford and Bridgeport, on a pretty 
regular basis.
  This debate has to be not just about what we can do to try to lessen 
the likelihood that anyone has to call me and ask for advice on how 
they should handle the latest mass shooting in their State or their 
district, but it also has to be an answer to the thousands of people 
who are losing their lives on the streets of America due to routine, 
everyday gun violence. That is what the compromise that is on the floor 
for debate right now will do.
  Since we put into place our background checks law, there have been 
hundreds of thousands of people who have been legally prohibited from 
buying guns because they were felons or they had been convicted of 
domestic abuse or they were judged so mentally ill that they shouldn't 
own guns. Hundreds of thousands of people have walked into gun stores 
and have been prevented from buying guns because of our background 
check law. The problem is that only about 60 percent of gun sales go 
through those background checks, and 90 percent of Americans agree we 
should apply background checks to as many people as we can to make sure 
criminals don't have guns. If criminals didn't have guns, I can 
virtually guarantee my colleagues that this visual would be a little 
less stunning than it is today. It wouldn't erase these figurines. 
Background checks, if they were universal, wouldn't erase the scourge 
of violence across this country, but it would certainly lessen the 
impact of this chart.
  So let's talk about some of the victims of urban gun violence--of gun 
violence in our communities that is a 1-day story in the paper, not the 
multiday episode a mass shooting may be.
  We can talk about someone like Kwante Feliciano. Kwante was killed 
just about a month ago in Hartford, CT. The shooting occurred on March 
25. Kwante was shot in the chest, and a companion, 30-year-old Kelly 
Cooper, was shot in the head. Both of them were pronounced dead at St. 
Francis Hospital.
  Kwante was a product of the Hartford public school system, and he was 
trying to do better for himself. There are a lot of kids who drop out 
of the Hartford public school system, but Kwante had figured out a way 
to graduate and was also trying to get himself employed in a tough 
economy. He was attending Lincoln Technical Institute, and he was 
studying to be an automotive technician at the time of his death. His 
obituary said that he was loved by everybody who came in contact with 
him and that what defined him to most of his friends and his family was 
his 100-watt smile.
  Hartford is a tough place to grow up. There are a lot of kids who 
don't see a way out of their situation. But this young man did. He had 
gotten his high school diploma. He was trying to do something to make 
himself better by becoming an automotive technician, and he was shot 
dead in the chest just a few short weeks ago. Kelly, by the way, who 
was shot with him, leaves behind four children, four brothers, and one 
sister.
  Kanasha Isaac was 16 years old. She was described by her friends as a 
social butterfly. She was full of energy and life. Her family was her 
center. Her uncle's home was always the place where her friends and her 
family congregated when they were there. Kanasha was the center of all 
of her family's life.
  After exiting a local restaurant, Kanasha and her boyfriend got into

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their car. Another car pulled up beside them, blocked them as they were 
going into a parking space, and a man shot at their car. He shot 
Kanasha in the face. She died shortly thereafter at 16 years old. This 
was in Florida on February 24 of this year.
  Kanasha was going to the local high school. She wasn't the first 
victim of gun violence in recent months. In December two high school 
classmates of hers, Coby Deleon and Natalia Trejo, were killed in a 
murder-suicide. Three students in this one local high school in Florida 
were killed in about a 2-month, 3-month period of time.
  Christopher Walker was 19 years old, and he was shot on March 12 of 
this year in Milton, GA. It was an attempted robbery. He was a 
marketing student at Georgia Perimeter College, and he had just been 
accepted into Kennesaw State University for the upcoming fall semester. 
That is a big deal. He had been trying to do right for himself and his 
family. He had been studying marketing, and he had just gotten accepted 
into Kennesaw State University. He was excited about getting into that 
school. He was already working to pay for his degree. He was a 
successful salesman at a local Sears store, and he was doing all of 
this with a goal toward the long term. He was a great salesman. He was 
studying marketing.
  He was going to get his degree, but he really loved music. His dream 
was to become a musician. Even as this 19-year-old college student was 
looking for a job, he was recording as much music as he could, and his 
goal was to take his music and not keep the money he collected from it 
for himself; he was going to donate it to charity. So he was going to 
pursue his college degree, go out and continue to be a salesman, and do 
music on the side simply to make enough money to give to charity.
  What an amazing kid, 19 years old. In an attempted robbery on March 
12 of this year, Christopher Walker was shot dead in Milton, GA.
  Dominique Boyer was 18 when he was shot in Atlanta, GA, on March 28.
  All of these victims, by the way, are part of this chart. 
Unfortunately, I do not have to go back 6 months or a year or a year 
and a half to find an endless list of victims. We are just talking 
about March of this year.
  Dominique was 18 years old and just months away from his high school 
graduation when he became an unintentional, innocent victim of a 
shooting in DeKalb County, GA. Dominique was a senior at Columbia High 
School and he had been planning to go to college to become an 
accountant.
  His classmates remember him as happy, as outgoing, as a very 
respectful kid with a lot of friends. He was the oldest of four 
siblings. He was just months away; he was going to graduate this fall. 
He was going to go to college, and he was an unintentional, innocent 
victim of a shooting.
  We hear this over and over and over. I have read now probably 50- or 
60-plus stories of kids--18, 19 years old--who have been killed. The 
highest incidence of gun violence occurs to 19-year-olds, I think, 
followed by 18-year-olds, followed by 17-year-olds. It is really 
teenagers who are getting killed out there. Unfortunately, in 
Connecticut, it was 6- and 7-year-olds, but kids who are not much older 
than the kids who died in Sandy Hook are dying every day in this 
country from gun violence, and most of them are unintentional, innocent 
victims. At some level a lot of people want to believe that the people 
who are killed in urban gun violence are killed in connection with a 
crime or are wrapped up in gangs. Some of that is true, but the stories 
we are hearing are of good kids who were doing the right thing; who, as 
the President has said, were not in the wrong place at the wrong time 
but were in the right place at the right time.
  Dominique Boyer was a respectful kid who treated everybody well but 
just happened to be in the way of a bullet that maybe was not 
designated for him but should not have been flying through the air in 
the first place.
  Hakeem Jackson was 17 years old when he was killed a couple weeks 
before Dominique on March 11, 2013, in Knoxville, TN. He was just on a 
weekend visit to Knoxville visiting his family and his grandmother. 
Hakeem's mom described him as a quiet and bashful boy but sometimes a 
little bit of a prankster.
  On a Friday night he asked his grandmother for some money. He was 17 
years old. He just wanted to go down to the store. While he was walking 
down a street in a city that was not even his own, a gray sedan pulled 
up and shot Hakeem several times. Those shots eventually killed him. He 
was 17 years old, just visiting his grandmother in Knoxville, TN.
  Let me share a couple more stories with you.
  Kay Cornell Janus was on the other end of life's spectrum. She was 72 
when she was shot just 1 day before Hakeem in Marietta, GA. She was 
known for her grace and her poise, and, again, as you have heard about 
a number of these victims, her radiant smile--something her family and 
friends remembered about her.
  She was full of class. She loved fine food and wine and traveling and 
entertaining. Many of these hobbies became, over the course of her 
life, her passion. She was the mother of four, and she was the 
grandmother of two.
  She was shot in her garage by her longtime boyfriend. Neighbors 
suspect that the murder may have been the result of a simple dispute 
they were having over finances. It ended in Kay, 72 years old, being 
gunned down.
  Zachary Rose was killed in January of this year. He was celebrating 
his 22nd birthday. Two days later, after his 22nd birthday, he was 
killed. His loves were skateboarding and cars and dogs--dogs at the top 
of his list. He absolutely loved dogs, and he had a Great Dane, 
Mathias, that all of his friends said after he was killed was really 
``his baby.''
  He actually loved dogs so much that he ran his own dog training 
company. Zachary's friend dedicated a page of their company's Web site 
to help raise money for Zachary's funeral because his family was going 
through very tough times, and when he was killed, leaving behind three 
siblings--a brother and two sisters--they did not have enough money to 
pay for his funeral.
  His friends said Zachary was the kind of guy who ``literally had no 
enemies''--killed by guns on January 28, 2013.
  His family did not have the money to pay for his funeral. It is the 
story of a lot of these families. Families are already going through 
tough times. Luckily, a lot of these communities rally to the victims' 
defense to raise the money for these funerals. But think about that. 
Think about going through the pain and the grief of losing your child 
or your son or your daughter or your grandson or your sister or your 
brother, and then looking into your family's accounts and not even 
having enough money to bury them. That is the reality of what is 
happening across this Nation today because it happens too often.
  There has been another trend in the last several months that has in 
some ways been even more disturbing than the overall incidence of 
3,000-plus people having died across our country. We have seen a very 
disturbing trend, in the last several months even, of accidental deaths 
from guns. As we have said, there is no one solution to this plague of 
gun violence. It is getting tougher on our gun laws: making sure 
criminals do not have them who should not, trying to take some of these 
dangerous weapons--the assault weapons and the dangerous high-capacity 
ammunition--off the streets, having a better mental health system. But 
it is also about gun safety. It is also about making sure if someone is 
going to be a gun owner they be a responsible gun owner, that they put 
a lock on their gun and keep it away from children.
  Over the past several months there have been four absolutely tragic 
shootings involving toddlers.
  A Tennessee woman was shot in the stomach by her 2-year-old child who 
discovered a Glock 9 stored underneath a pillow. The child picked it 
out from under the pillow, discharged the weapon, and shot Rekia Kid 
while she was sleeping.
  Josephine Fanning was shot and killed in Tennessee when a 4-year-old

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boy discharged a handgun owned by Fanning's husband, who had just kept 
the gun loaded, in his words, ``for just a moment.'' A 4-year-old boy.
  A 6-year-old boy was accidentally shot and killed by his 4-year-old 
playmate in a quiet residential New Jersey neighborhood. ``This never 
should have happened,'' the victim's uncle said. ``It's horrible.''
  A 3-year-old died recently of an accidental self-inflicted gun wound 
in South Carolina after finding a gun in an apartment and discharging 
the weapon.
  A 2-year-old shooting his mother, a 4-year-old shooting an adult, a 
6-year-old getting shot by a 4-year-old, and a 3-year-old shooting 
themselves--these accidental shootings are likely not going to be 
solved by a background check law or by a ban on high-capacity 
ammunition, but it just speaks to how big this problem is. It speaks to 
how many guns are out there.
  It also speaks to the fact that as part of our debate on background 
checks and on specific weaponry that should be kept in the hands of the 
military, we should be having a conversation about gun safety as well.
  Lastly, I want to talk about the importance of today.
  Senator Kaine, I believe, was down on the floor earlier talking about 
the 6-year anniversary of the worst mass shooting in this country's 
history at Virginia Tech. I want to close by just telling a few final 
stories about those victims. I have told some of them when I have been 
down here before, but that shooting was in some ways just as tragic.
  In Sandy Hook, we had a little glimpse into who these little boys and 
girls would be. When we heard these stories about their intellectual 
curiosity and their kindness and their grace, we had a window into what 
amazing people folks such as Dylan Hockley and Grace McDonnell and 
Madeleine Hsu would eventually grow up to be.
  In Virginia Tech, though, we had a much better window into these kids 
because though they had not reached maturity, they had already 
succeeded by getting into Virginia Tech, and we could really see the 
kind of contributions they were going to leave.
  Austin Michelle Cloyd lived life boldly. She had traveled the world 
with her family. She was interested in everything from politics to 
environmental issues to international relations. She was a very tall 
girl and everybody remembered what Austin looked like because she had 
flaming red hair and a big, bright smile. She played basketball 
throughout her middle and high school years, and she worked four 
summers with the Appalachia Service Project to help make homes better 
for people--to make them warmer and safer and dryer.
  She loved reading and scuba diving and music and concerts, and she 
was just a girl who was absolutely full of life. She lived her life for 
a purpose. She knew she wanted to help people.
  She had a brilliant mind and a compassionate heart and she had an 
iron will. We will never know what Austin was going to truly grow up to 
be. She was killed that day at Virginia Tech.
  Jocelyne Couture-Nowak was a French Canadian who had a passion for 
teaching French. She was a faculty member who was killed that day. 
Before she moved to Virginia, she was very well known for being 
instrumental in helping to develop a school to ensure access for 
francophone families who wanted a safe school environment and a French 
language education.
  She went between Nova Scotia and southwest Virginia. She loved the 
bucolic countryside, and she loved to go on hikes, whether it was in 
Virginia or back in Nova Scotia.
  She was passionate for French education. She was passionate that 
other people would learn the language, and she still had a lot of 
passion to give. But she was killed that day as well.
  Matthew Gwaltney was a second-year master's student in the Civil and 
Environmental Engineering Department. His professional goal was to go 
out and increase awareness and education about environmental issues. He 
wanted to encourage people to be proactive in their individual lives to 
try to better our environment, whether it was just leaving a smaller 
and more confined footprint on this world or going out and creating 
systems in their community to lower the impact of pollution.
  His passion was environmental awareness, but he was also a big fan of 
sports. He was a detailed expert in sports statistics, and you could 
not beat Matthew in a game of trivia. He loved his Hokies and was a 
devoted fan, and he went to every ACC sporting event he could. 
Professionally, he loved the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago White Sox 
and the Chicago Bulls.
  Matthew was going to lead a great life--one that was lived outwardly. 
But we never got to see the maturity of his passion for environmental 
awareness, nor his passion for the hobbies he loved because Matthew was 
killed that day at Virginia Tech.
  The list just goes on and on and on--3,400 people killed since 
December 14. I have in the Chamber just a few of the pictures of the 
young men and women who have been killed in Hartford and Bridgeport and 
New York and Washington and Newtown, CT. It is their memories we will 
honor this week as we go forward on one of the most important public 
safety debates this Chamber and this city has ever had.
  I will be back down to the Senate floor later this week to continue 
to engage my colleagues in talking about the real reason we are here; 
that is, the victims of gun violence all across this country.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the period for debate 
only on S. 649 be extended until 5:30 p.m., and that the majority 
leader be recognized at that time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I wish to begin by saying my thoughts 
and prayers, similar to those of so many Americans, are with Boston 
today, with the families and loved ones of those who have lost lives or 
been injured. I offer my deepest condolences to the families of those 
victims and my sincere gratitude to the courageous first responders, 
including many of the runners who courageously went to the aid of 
people who were grievously injured and some maimed by this horrific act 
of terror. Whether we call it a terrorist act or an act of terror or 
simply a criminal murder, it is certainly to be condemned and 
investigated as thoroughly and promptly as possible. I know the full 
resources of the Federal Government have been devoted to this purpose.
  We are an open society. We appear soft-hearted to people who want to 
do harm to a democracy. We are vulnerable because we are a democracy 
and we are open. We have resolved that we will not become totalitarian 
or antidemocratic; that we will remain a free and open society. That is 
the wonder and strength and uniqueness of America, the greatest Nation 
in the history of the world.
  Horror has brought us to this debate, the horror of gun violence, the 
horror of what has happened in our schools, our streets, our 
neighborhoods, in places where the public is admitted, indeed welcomed, 
whether it is movie theaters or places of worship or schools, places 
where the public has access and where, therefore, all our citizens, 
most especially our children, are vulnerable.
  Last week when we opened this debate we spent a lot of time talking 
about victims. Senator Murphy and I spent a lot of time on the Senate 
floor discussing Newtown and the victims of that unspeakable and 
unimaginable tragedy. Today we remember another similar tragedy, 
facilitated by the same extraordinarily dangerous weapons in the hands 
of people who should not be permitted to have firearms or

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guns. Six years ago today, Seung-Hui Cho used two semiautomatic 
handguns and nine 10- and 15-round magazines to kill 32 innocent 
victims and injure 23 at Virginia Tech University. Many of those 
weapons he used were purchased online. Others were purchased at local 
stores without a background check.
  As somebody who has seen my own State grapple with this tragedy, I 
extend my condolences to the families of Virginia Tech victims--some of 
their families were here earlier today--and all who have felt the 
impact of this absolutely senseless slaughter, as senseless and 
unspeakable as what happened in Newtown just 4 months ago.
  I wish to recognize the leadership of our two Senators from Virginia 
and their efforts to prevent another Virginia Tech. As he discussed 
earlier, Senator Warner has been actively engaged in efforts to bring 
research and resources together to make our schools and campuses safer. 
His leadership has been extremely important. Colleges and universities 
play an extraordinarily important role in my own State of Connecticut. 
I know they are constantly working to keep their campuses safe. The 
School and Campus Safety Enhancements Act included in the gun violence 
legislation currently before this body would be an important step 
toward giving these very institutions of higher learning what they need 
to protect our students and support the kind of research that is 
necessary to develop new means and possibly new technology, new tools 
that our institutions of higher learning but also institutions of 
learning across-the-board, beginning with our elementary schools, need 
to do better.
  I am proud to be cosponsor of this legislation. I look forward to 
working with my colleagues to ensure its passage. Senator Kaine spoke 
so powerfully and eloquently on the floor earlier today, showed such 
grace under pressure--which is one of the definitions of courage--in 
responding to the Virginia Tech tragedy. He has worked to deal with the 
wounds. He has resolved to learn from Virginia Tech and indeed he 
worked as a Governor to seek safer campuses across Virginia and across 
the country. He fought to put in place commonsense laws that would 
prevent shooters such as Seung-Hui Cho from having access to the 
arsenal he used 6 years ago. I thank Senator Kaine for helping to lead 
the effort for a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines such as the 
ones used at Virginia Tech and used at Newtown and used in so many 
other shootings across the country over the years. With his support, I 
plan to offer a high-capacity magazine ban, on behalf of Senator 
Lautenberg, in an amendment to the gun violence legislation currently 
before the Senate.
  I am proud to be working with others, such as Senator Feinstein, 
Senator Schumer, and my colleague Senator Murphy, in that effort. I 
encourage my colleagues to work with me and Senator Kaine to pass 
commonsense legislation as we mark the tragedy at Virginia Tech and we 
remember the victims of Newtown.
  I thank the families of the victims of these shootings from all 
across the country who have come to Washington over these past days, 
and indeed weeks, working so hard and so diligently, working through 
their grief and pain, doing something that is so difficult for them so 
others can be spared this pain and grief.
  Many will face difficult votes, perhaps as early as tomorrow. We have 
approached the cusp of these vital and historic votes. Many of these 
votes will be difficult for my colleagues. But as difficult as they are 
for them--and for many whose difficulty I respect--let's remember how 
difficult it has been for those families of the victims to come here to 
look you in the eye as they have done and say: Let's now do something 
about gun violence. That is what I heard in the wake of Newtown, as 
early as the evening that horrific tragedy occurred. Let's do something 
about the guns.
  We have the opportunity to do something about the guns. As Gabby 
Giffords said to the Judiciary Committee just weeks ago: Be bold. Be 
courageous. America is counting on you.
  That is her urging to us. That is our obligation and our historic 
opportunity.
  I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. 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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