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[Pages S2752-S2753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Gun Violence
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on Tuesday afternoon, our country
suffered another shooting--this time in Highlands Ranch, CO. It was the
second shooting of the week following a weekend where at least 19
people were shot in Baltimore, 16 in St. Louis, and 28 in Chicago.
My grandson is less than a year old. He turned over in his crib last
night--great accomplishment. But on a serious note, I don't want him to
live in a world where this is the norm. I don't want him to see this on
TV every other week. I don't want him to come home after school to tell
his parents about learning to hide under a desk with the lights off. I
don't want him to grow up in a country where children and adolescents
are more than 20 times more likely to be killed with guns than their
peers in other high-income countries.
I want him--little Noah and every other child in America--to live in
a world where America's gun violence epidemic is a thing of the past.
It may seem a naive thought in a cynical time, but I believe we can get
there. We can take steps right now to make these incidents less likely.
Nothing will prevent them, but there are lots of things we can do to
make them a lot less frequent. A few months ago, the House did just
that. The House passed legislation to close the loopholes in Federal
background checks--something that more than 90 percent of all Americans
support.
No one here pretends that we can prevent every incident, but we have
a choice to face between moving in the right direction in a significant
way and doing nothing. That is why I am so disappointed once again that
Leader McConnell and the Republican majority have turned this Chamber
into a
[[Page S2753]]
legislative graveyard where even the most bipartisan, broadly supported
legislation like background checks can't even get a vote or a
discussion. Here we are at the end of another week in the Senate. This
week, we have done nothing but process nominations. It is not because
there is nothing else to do. There are over 100 bills--many
noncontroversial and many bipartisan--that have passed the House and
are awaiting Senate action, but Leader McConnell has turned the Senate
into a legislative graveyard.
When the American people demand action, Leader McConnell does
nothing. When the American people demand action, the Senate Republicans
are in obeisance to this strategy of a graveyard, even when in their
hearts they may know doing that is not right and they would like to
debate the issues, whatever their views.
Leader McConnell promised to preside over an open Senate, with
vigorous debate and amendment votes and the ability to vote on issues
of the day. He promised that, and he said no matter which party offered
the ideas. Leader McConnell is breaking those promises when he consigns
bill after bill--every one of them needed by America, needed by the
middle class, needed by working people--every one of them to a
legislative graveyard. So there are no debates, no amendments, no
progress, no hope for the American people as the Senate continues to be
in such a legislative graveyard.
