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

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield for a question, first of all, I thank the Senator for bringing attention to this critical issue and for everything that he is doing to fight for more than just thoughts and prayers but actually for action. Few Senators have a better firsthand understanding of this issue and the impact it has on our families and our communities and the urgent need to address it.

As we mourn for the victims and families who were impacted by the horrific violence and terror against LGBT and Latino Americans in Orlando on Sunday, we are once again reminded that no one is safe from the horrific epidemic of gun violence in our country--not even in our schools, which should be safe havens for our students.

I know the Senator knows this all too well. My home State of Washington is no stranger to this as well. In 2014, a man walked into an academic hall at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, shooting three students and taking the life of a freshman. Later that very same year, a 15-year-old boy shot five other students, killing four, at Marysville Pilchuck High School in Marysville, with his dad's gun. Those shootings were devastating to parents, siblings, friends, and teachers--to our entire community. Those are just two examples in my home State.

In Newtown, and across the country, there are too many shootings in schools to even name. According to a report from Everytown, from 2013 to 2016, we had 188 shootings at schools across the country. Not all were mass murders; some just a gun going off in the air, other students were wounded, others were attempts at self-harm. That is terrifying in a school when a shotgun goes off; that noise, what happens to the kids around it, and it is frightening to me that this is not letting up.

It sickens me actually that in America today parents have to wonder if their children will be safe when they send them off to school or when they go to a movie theater or a mall or even on a street in their own neighborhood. Every time there is a new mass shooting, I get the same question from the people I represent in Washington State: What is Congress going to do to stop this?

It is frustrating to me that every time I come back with the same answer, ``We have been blocked from doing anything,'' in response to my constituents and the people across the country. People are asking and begging for us to do something--anything--to stop this scourge of gun violence that has once again been splashed across the front pages of our newspapers and on our TV screens.

I say to Senator Murphy, I know you are talking about a number of issues around gun violence today. We all so appreciate it, but I wanted to come here today to specifically ask you: Can you talk a little bit-- because you have seen it firsthand--about how this impacts our students in particular?

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Mrs. MURRAY. I appreciate the Senator's response because, to me, there are multiple layers, but certainly if we are not doing anything to provide that safety for our young kids in this country, we are not living up to our responsibility as adults today. It is horrific for a parent to get that text home saying there has been a school lockdown. It is even worse if the consequences are real. It seems to me, the Senator is right to be out here today discussing and bringing attention to it and doing more than just saying, ``Let's do something,'' but really forcing us to make sure we are doing something, and I thank the Senator.

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