Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague, the Senator from Connecticut, yielding for a question.

I am proud to join so many Members of the Senate. I want to echo the comments of the Senator from Missouri, her comments about getting the same kind of calls, notes, and questions.

I want to acknowledge as well that there have been Members of the House from Virginia and Louisiana who have come to show solidarity in the effort being led so eloquently from mostly the Senator from Connecticut and the Senator from New Jersey.

I think we are all trying to wrap our heads around the fact that a single lone gunman was able to extinguish the lives of 49 Americans in a gay nightclub in Orlando. Before we get to this legislation, I think we also have to acknowledge that this was a crime of hate--a crime of hate that unfortunately targeted the Latino community and in particular the LGBT community. And as the LGBT community grieves nationwide, we need to make clear that the long fight for equality includes not only marriage equality but equal protection in terms of public safety and living in safety.

The Senator from Connecticut has made some comments about the number of deaths that take place in our country each year from gun violence-- 30,000 a year. I think about, just as the Senator from Connecticut acknowledged in the aftermath of Newtown how I rethought some of my positions on some of these issues. We all have to take a fresh look at the challenges our country faces in providing a reasonable framework of gun legislation that protects the rights as well of law- abiding gun owners.

One of the things that troubles me is I think virtually every Member of this body has probably stated or tweeted out their thoughts and prayers for the victims in Orlando. What I think I am hearing from the media, from those victims, and from Virginians across the board, is they want to see more than thoughts and prayers; they actually want to see us act.

There are a whole host of different proposals we could look at to try to deal with gun violence. I believe the Senator from Connecticut has picked two that are frankly the most reasonable, with the most common ground that we should take on.

Like the Senator from Connecticut, I know the scourge of having a mass murder take place in your State. Until this terrible tragedy in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting was at Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where 32 lives were taken. I know how that community grieves, how Newtown grieves, how Aurora grieves, how Charleston grieves, and now how Orlando is grieving. Quite honestly, day in and day out, how many other communities are affected by this scourge of gun violence?

As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know the challenges we face every day in dealing with the threat of violent terrorists determined to do our Nation harm. But if we are going to talk about taking on terrorism--which we need to have a united effort on--shouldn't we take this reasonable step of abiding by the judgment of law enforcement and saying: If you end up on a terrorist watch list, you should not be able to purchase a firearm.

We have seen in recent days statistics that show that more than 90 percent of known or suspected terrorists who attempted to buy weapons since 2004 have passed a background check and then have been able to purchase a firearm. To me, that is an internal contradiction that, by taking action this week, we can turn around. If you are too dangerous to get on an airplane, aren't you too dangerous to be allowed to purchase a firearm?

The second solution my friend the Senator from Connecticut has put forward is to take up and pass the bipartisan proposal, which has the overwhelming support of the general public, to increase background checks. Ninety percent of the public supports this effort. Over 70 percent of gun owners support this effort. Why? Because we know background checks work. Since 1994, 2.6 million people, by either evidence of criminal backgrounds or mental illnesses, have been prevented from purchasing firearms.

There are a host of other proposals that I know the Senator from Connecticut has put on his agenda, but what I want to do is thank the Senator from Connecticut for putting forward two of the most basic proposals, two of the proposals that have bipartisan broad appeal.

I would ask the Senator from Connecticut, with the overwhelming public support that Americans express for this type of commonsense legislation and with, unfortunately, the sometimes low regard this body is held, does the Senator believe that if we took these actions and passed them, not only could we send a strong signal of making America safer, but we could once again show we will uphold our constitutional duties?

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