Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, we are saying today not only enough is enough but also: Rise up, America, and demand action from this Congress, which for too long has been complicit--in fact, an aider and abettor in the mass killings that have taken place at Virginia Tech, Columbine, Charleston, Sandy Hook, and now Roseburg.

If America rises up, Congress will hear and heed that message, just as it would in any public health crisis, and today we face a public health crisis as real and urgent as a contagion of flu or tuberculosis or, yes, Ebola. The same kind of urgency and immediacy in response is necessary--commonsense, sensible measures to fill gaps, close loopholes, and expand existing law to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. One of those principles should be this: no background check, no gun; no check, no sale.

Let us close the gap that permits countless criminals to buy guns because the background check isn't complete within the required 72 hours. One of the 15,729 ineligible purchasers over the last 5 years--people who were barred by law from buying guns--was Dylann Roof in Charleston. He used his gun to kill nine people in a church in Charleston. He was ineligible to buy a gun, but the background check was not completed within 72 hours.

We are igniting and activating a silent majority in America. More than 90 percent of the American people want background checks on every gun buyer, along with other commonsense measures, such as a ban on illegal trafficking and straw purchases and a mental health initiative in school safety. Let us give America its say, and this moment is one we should seize to say: Rise up, America.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source