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[Pages S3234-S3235]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Gun Violence Awareness Month
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, this weekend another community was torn
apart by gun violence. Once again, politicians do what so many
politicians in this body do. They offer thoughts and prayers to the
people of Virginia Beach, and then they move on. It is tragic, and it
is obscene how routine this has become in our country and how routine
that reaction from far too many politicians--from the White House on
down--has become.
This month we mark Gun Violence Awareness Month, but in our country
every month, every week, and every day we endure senseless gun
violence. Congress has ignored for too long the millions of Americans
who want reasonable gun safety measures instead of doing the bidding of
the gun lobby.
We cannot say we are doing what it takes to keep our country safe
until we are finally willing to pass commonsense laws to protect all
Americans from gun violence. Many of us have tried.
I supported the original Federal assault weapons ban in 1994. I
joined with many of my colleagues to vote to renew it after Sandy Hook.
Weapons of war and assault weapons do not belong on our streets.
We have tried to pass legislation to close loopholes in our
background check system so that people who buy guns on the internet or
at gun shows have to go through the same background checks as law-
abiding gun owners who buy their guns at stores in Ohio.
After the tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, we tried to pass
legislation to prevent people on the terrorist watch list from buying
guns. If you are too dangerous to get on an airplane--if the government
says you can't ride in the plane because you are on the terrorist watch
list--it should be too dangerous for you to buy a deadly weapon. But
this body is so, so in the pocket of the NRA that they will not even
pass legislation like that. The gun lobby, again, stood in the way. We
know what happened each and every time. They stood in the way, despite
the fact that the laws we are talking about would not undermine the
rights of law-abiding gun owners.
I respect the rights of hunters, of collectors, and of responsible
law-abiding gun owners. No one is trying to take away their guns. When
our students aren't safe in our schools, it is clear that something has
to be done. When workers aren't safe on the job, it is clear that we
have to do something. When too many Americans don't feel safe going
about their daily lives in their communities, we can't sit here and do
nothing.
We will not give up on making our country safer. We will keep working
until we get weapons of war out of our schools, out of our workplaces,
out of our neighborhoods, and out of our
[[Page S3235]]
places of worship. Creating change in our country isn't easy. It
requires going up against powerful special interests. Few are as
powerful as the NRA. Change never starts in Washington. We make
progress because of grassroots movements of Americans all across our
country demanding action. From Marches for Our Lives to the Women's
March, to the activism around the Affordable Care Act, Americans proved
again and again and again the power of activism. Mothers and fathers,
students and teachers all across this country who stood up and marched
for gun safety are the people we sent here to serve, not the special
interest gun lobby.
I hope my colleagues will not so easily forget what happened in
Virginia Beach and at the Poway synagogue and in Pittsburgh and in
Parkland and in Orlando and at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis and in
Las Vegas and in Sandy Hook and in our neighborhoods around this
country every month, every week, and every day.