Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, it has been 32 days since the tragedy in Parkland. I think Senator Nelson may be coming to the floor very soon. Frankly, every day since then, there has been a series of tragedies all across this country. On average, 90 people lose their lives every single day to gun violence. There has been, over the course of the last year, a mass shooting, on average, every single day. Most of them aren't covered in the newspaper, but there is an incident in which four or more people are shot, on average, more than once per day in this country.

Of course, it has now been more than 5 years since the devastating tragedy in my State, where 20 first graders lost their lives. This is deeply personal to all of us here in this Chamber.

It became very personal to me last week when my 6-year old came home from school to tell me about his active shooter drill. He is 6, and he is in kindergarten. In his kindergarten class, they have a small bathroom that all of the kids in the class use. He explained to me that for their active shooter drill, all 25 kids in his classroom--a whole bunch of 5- and 6-year-olds--were shoved inside this tiny, little bathroom together, crunched together, shoulder to shoulder, with the door locked. Imagine how frightening that would be to a 6-year-old child, even if they didn't completely understand why they were there.

He said to me when he got home that night: Daddy, I didn't like it. In the most powerful, most affluent country in the world, our children should not have to go through that; never mind those who have actually had to face down someone with a gun inside their classroom or inside their school.

What is devastating to the parents in Parkland and Sandy Hook, what is devastating to the parents in Baltimore, in New Haven, and in Chicago is that we refuse to have a debate on the Senate floor about how we can help address this epic mass slaughter, this gun violence epidemic in this country.

I have been taking pains over the course of the last 6 months to try to reach out across the aisle and find common ground with my colleagues on some commonsense legislation about changes to our gun laws. I am proud to have worked with Senator Cornyn on a small bill that would encourage States to comply with existing law--the Fix NICS Act. It now has over 60 Republican and Democratic cosponsors, enough that it could overcome a cloture motion.

I have come to the floor today to ask that we come to an agreement-- Republicans and Democrats--by which we can have an open debate on the issue of gun violence for the American public before we break for a 2- week Easter recess. We are going to go back to our States and have a wonderful time with our friends and families, while many others continue to grieve all across this country and many others will enter the ranks of those who grieve because, during the 14 days that we will be away, thousands of people will die from gunshot wounds. I just can't imagine that we would make a decision to go home at the end of this week without having had a debate on the Senate floor for the American people to see how we can try to respond to this cry, this call from the American public to do something.

These kids have been amazing. Literally hundreds of thousands of children walked out of school last week, and hundreds of thousands more students and their parents will be here in Washington for marches and at 600 other marches all around the country this weekend.

The polls tell us over and over again that 9 out of 10 Americans want us to take bold steps forward. Record numbers of American citizens believe the laws that exist today are not sufficient. This isn't a controversial issue outside of Washington. It is controversial only here, inside this Chamber. If we remain silent, if we refuse to have a debate on the Senate floor, we are failing the people who sent us here.

I have come to the floor today to propose a very reasonable path forward so that we can have a debate and some up-or-down votes on proposals this week. From what I understand, there is still a lot of discussion happening with respect to the budget. Obviously, we have to get that done by the end of the week, but it is not ready yet, so we have time this week to have a short but meaningful debate on the issue of guns.

Here is what I am proposing. I am proposing that we have a unanimous consent agreement whereby we can have a time-limited debate--I would suggest perhaps not more than 6 hours--and at the end of that period of time, we have six votes, three votes propounded by the Democratic side and three votes on measures propounded by the Republican side.

I think it is no secret the amendments that Senate Democrats would offer. We would want to see a vote on universal commercial background checks to make sure that commercial sales of guns are subject to background checks. That is something President Trump said he was for at the White House, and he has encouraged the Congress to work on it. Let's have an up-or-down vote on background checks.

I think Democrats would clearly want to see the bipartisan compromise, which has been worked out by Senator Blumenthal and Senator Graham with respect to protective orders, red flag orders, come before the Chamber. It simply makes sense that we do what Florida is doing: Pass a law that allows for law enforcement, after a viable court process, to take away weapons temporarily from someone who poses a threat. The problem in Florida was, even if they had done something about this young man, they didn't have the legal ability to take his weapons away, even if he had made those kinds of threats in public. Florida is correcting that with their new law. We should do the same at the Federal level.

On our side, there is also interest in talking about the kinds of weapons that are legal and the kinds of weapons that are not. I am a believer, of course, that there is a class of military-style tactical semiautomatic weapons that are best if they are not in the hands of civilians. Obviously, that issue divides our side too. So if that were to come up for a vote, there will be Democrats for it and Democrats against it.

On the other two measures, there will be Republicans for them and Republicans against them. Some Republicans are for universal background checks; some aren't. There are many Republicans on record as being for protective orders, and there are others who will not vote for them.

We will have no idea, the American public will have no idea, and our constituents will have no idea what we are really willing to do and what we are not willing to do unless we have a debate. This is our last chance before we go home.

What I am proposing, I think, is reasonable, practical, and viable. We can get it done--six total amendments to the Fix NICS Act, time limited, perhaps only 6 hours. We could be in and out of that debate in a day. I have talked with my leadership about it. I am confident that Democratic leadership would support that path forward, and I propose it to Republican leadership tonight, as we enter this week, as a means of having this debate that the American public so badly needs. The alternative is unthinkable--going home, letting over a month pass since Parkland, since this outcry for action from kids across America, and not even attempting to get something done here.

I understand this issue is still difficult. I don't understand why my Republican colleagues will not support something like background checks, an issue supported by 97 percent of Americans. It is pretty hard to find anything in America that is supported by 97 percent of Americans. Apple pie and Grandma probably don't get 97 percent approval ratings in this country, but universal background checks do. So, yes, I am frustrated that my Republican colleagues don't just come to the floor and agree to pass something that has mind-blowing universal support in the public, but what is more offensive is that we don't even try.

What is more offensive to me is that we don't even make an attempt to put these measures on the floor of the Senate and let them be voted up or down. I don't want the gun lobby to have veto power over the legislation that gets passed here, but even worse than that is for the gun lobby to have veto power over what we even debate.

I propose a total of six amendments and a total of 6 hours of debate. I would argue that is insufficient to meet the moment, but I get it that time is running out, that there is not a lot of interest from some Members on the Republican side to enter into this debate. So we are very willing to have a short, time-limited debate to see what we can get consensus on and what we can't get consensus on, and whatever moves out of this building, whatever amendments get passed, then we live with it and live to fight another day.

It has been 5 years since the tragedy in my State and now 32 days since Parkland. I don't think we should wait one day longer before we have an open debate on the Senate floor about how we, as those entrusted with the safety of our children, do something about the epidemic of gun violence in this country.

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