Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Madam President, I rise to talk about the topic of gun violence. Time and again we have heard calls in this Chamber for tougher gun safety laws. We have debated ideas that have ultimately fallen short of passage. These were basic reforms that would better protect all Americans, and every time these proposals have failed, more of our communities have fallen victim to gun violence. There are more and more vigils, more funerals, and more questions about how these tragedies keep happening.

Today lawmakers in Washington put forward a set of general principles to guide us as we work to stop the enormous amount of gun violence and gun deaths in our country. These principles include more thorough background checks, which the vast majority of Americans support. They include closing the various loopholes that make it so easy for criminals--not law-abiding citizens--to buy guns, and they include cracking down on gun trafficking and making it a Federal crime.

I have introduced a bipartisan bill with Senator Kirk. The bill called the Hadiya Pendleton and Nyasia Pryear-Yard Gun Trafficking and Crime Prevention Act of 2015. It was named after two young girls who lost their lives when stray bullets from gang violence killed them.

This bill is bipartisan. My main cosponsor is a Republican. Gun trafficking is recognized all around this country as a major source of fuel for American gun violence. Our bill would finally make gun trafficking a Federal crime. It would give law enforcement the tools they need to get illegal guns--we are not talking about legal guns--off the streets and prosecute those who make money dealing in trafficked weapons.

Right now there is no Federal law that prevents someone from loading their truck in Georgia, driving up I-95, and reselling those guns to gang members in New York. These guns go to dangerous criminals. They are not going to our law-abiding citizens. They are not going to hunters in upstate New York. They are going to gang members in New York City, Chicago, and big cities across this country.

We need to make it possible for our law enforcement to do their jobs. I have said it over and over again, nothing ever happens in Washington until regular people stand up and demand action. They want this nonsense to stop. They want innocent lives not to be lost because of criminals and the mentally ill who can so easily get access to weapons. It is insane that we cannot do commonsense gun reform that the vast majority of Americans and gun owners actually support.

If you, God forbid, are a parent who has lost a child, we need to hear your voice. If you are a member of law enforcement, we need to hear from you about what has worked and what has not worked. What resources do you need for us to help you do your job? If you are a law-abiding gun owner, we need to hear your ideas about how to prevent criminals from getting their hands on guns. If your life has been affected by gun violence, we need to hear your ideas about how to prevent other people from having to live through the horror you have lived through.

The only way we are going to make our country safer from gun violence is through Federal action. Right now, we are stuck with a patch of State and local laws which make it very hard for law enforcement to do their jobs to keep us safe. We urgently need Federal gun safety reform. Month after month, year after year illegal guns tear apart communities in New York and across our country.

According to the last Federal data, there were 8,539 firearms recovered and traced in my home State in 2013 alone, and of those more than 8,500 guns, nearly 70 percent of them came from out of State.

I cannot say this more strongly: We have to make gun trafficking a Federal crime. Give law enforcement the tools they need to keep our communities safe. Stop handing guns over to criminals. We can do this.

I yield the floor.

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