[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11147]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       STOPPING SCHOOL TRAGEDIES

  Mr. LEVIN Mr. President, every morning around our Nation, as young 
people walk into their schools, they are reminded of our Nation's 
epidemic of gun violence. The sights and sounds of an American school 
day--lockers closing, the morning bell--now compete with more 
disconcerting scenes: metal detectors, security cameras, and armed 
guards. Students interrupt math and science lessons to participate in 
active shooter drills. Parents everywhere ask the same, legitimate 
question: Are my kids safe in their school?
  They are right to be concerned. On June 10, a 15-year-old boy in 
Oregon brought a military-style assault rifle, nine magazines of 
ammunition, a handgun, and a knife to his high school. There, he 
murdered a classmate and exchanged gunfire with police before taking 
his own life. Several reports have counted this as the 74th instance of 
a shot being fired inside or near an American school since the tragic 
events of December 14, 2012, when a mentally deranged individual stole 
the lives of 27 people, 20 of them children, at Sandy Hook Elementary 
School in Newtown, Connecticut. The only number of such instances that 
America should accept is zero.
  It does not have to continue this way. The Newtown shooting, along 
with so many other horrific instances, created overwhelming consensus 
among Americans that Congress needs to act to stop this senseless gun 
violence. Polls now routinely show that more than 90 percent of the 
American public supports the passage of legislation to require simple 
background checks to be conducted on all gun sales. Recent reports have 
shown that 95 percent of internal medicine physicians in our Nation 
agree. And 76 percent of these physicians believe that gun safety 
legislation would ``help to reduce the risk for gun-related injuries or 
death.'' Organizations outside of government have engaged in important 
work to reduce gun violence in our society, including a recent 
initiative spearheaded by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence 
that encourages parents to keep their kids safe by asking a simple 
question: ``Is there an unlocked gun where my child plays?''
  But as long as Congress continues to ignore the American people, the 
fundamental problems remain. Today, in places all around our Nation, a 
convicted felon, a domestic abuser, a dangerously mentally ill 
individual, or a confused and angry teenager can still buy a firearm 
from an unlicensed dealer without undergoing any sort of background 
check. And at almost any time, a mentally ill young person can take 
their parent's military-style assault weapons, designed for no purpose 
other than murder, and commit an unspeakable atrocity, as happened that 
sad day in Newtown.
  Our country is not a war zone. Our Founding Fathers did not set forth 
to create a nation where parents walk through school hallways wondering 
if the doors and windows are thick enough. Or where communities turn on 
their televisions to tragic news, day after day, and have the same 
thought: ``That could be us next time.''
  It is long past time for Congress to live up to our responsibility to 
protect the American people. I urge my colleagues to take up and pass 
urgently needed, commonsense legislation to reduce gun violence in our 
society. The American people deserve nothing less.

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