[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8480]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               SAFE COMMUNITIES, SAFE SCHOOLS ACT OF 2013

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, in May, thousands of law enforcement 
officers from around the Nation came together at the National Law 
Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC to commemorate Peace 
Officers Memorial Day. The Congressional resolution that created this 
day of reflection dedicated it to the extraordinary law enforcement 
officers ``who, night and day, stand guard in our midst to protect us 
through enforcement of our laws,'' as well as the ``Federal, State, and 
municipal officers who have been killed or disabled in the line of 
duty.''
  As we commemorate Peace Officers Memorial Day, it is vital for us to 
not only to honor the extraordinary work of our Nation's law 
enforcement professionals, but also to listen to their suggestions for 
how we can make our Nation a safer place to live. And on one subject, 
the overwhelming majority of our Nation's law enforcement communities 
have been resolute and clear: Congress needs to support common sense 
measures, such as background checks for gun sales, to help stem the gun 
violence that plagues our Nation.
  This is far from a revolutionary idea. Polls consistently show that 
approximately 90 percent of Americans support universal background 
checks. So do major law enforcement groups such as the International 
Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, 
the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, 
the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, the 
National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the Police 
Executive Research Forum and the Police Foundation. These groups, each 
of them dedicated to the safety of our people, tell us that the time is 
now to act to prevent more senseless gun violence.
  The extension of background checks to all gun sales would go a long 
way toward making our neighborhoods safer. Today, anyone, including 
convicted felons and the mentally ill, can walk into a gun show and 
walk out with a deadly weapon. As Police Chief Ronald Haddad of 
Dearborn, MI put it in a letter he wrote to me this past April, 
``Police see firsthand the toll that gun violence takes in our schools, 
on our streets, and among our fellow officers--and we know from 
experience that our broken gun laws are a significant part of the 
problem.''
  This status quo has dangerous consequences. A 2004 Department of 
Justice survey found that 80 percent of prisoners who committed crimes 
with handguns got them through private transfers, where no background 
check is required. In many of these cases, a simple background check 
could have stopped a tragedy and saved lives by keeping a weapon out of 
the hands of someone who sought to use it for harm. As Baltimore County 
Police Chief James Johnson put it at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary 
Committee hearing earlier this year, ``The best way to stop a bad guy 
from getting a gun in the first place is a good background check.''
  We should listen to the voices of those entrusted with the safety of 
our communities. We should listen to the officers who every day 
confront well-armed criminals who legally purchase weapons to turn on 
innocents. We should live up to the spirit of Peace Officers Memorial 
Day by passing the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013, a common 
sense piece of legislation to protect our society from more senseless 
gun violence. We owe the brave law enforcement professionals who keep 
our communities safe nothing less.

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