Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, to my shock and surprise, 10 people were killed Friday in a little town outside of Houston known as Santa Fe, at Santa Fe High School, about 20 miles northwest of Galveston, TX. As we know now, a male student walked into an art class with a pistol and a shotgun that he got from his parents, perhaps without their knowledge. After stashing makeshift explosives elsewhere, he then engaged in a killing spree. The dead included eight students and two teachers. A brave police officer was among the 13 wounded.

When I heard of the shooting, I made plans to immediately go to Santa Fe, where I met with Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, Senator Cruz, and others, and we spoke to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the FBI representatives, as well as the Santa Fe Independent School District officials to find out what happened. The families there, of course, remain in shock that something so terrible could happen in their small, tucked away little community--one that was recently shaken by Hurricane Harvey last fall and had previously seemed far removed from the violence that has touched other parts of the country.

As I said last Friday, we have seen this before. Just last fall, we saw a similar story unfold in Sutherland Springs, outside of San Antonio, when a man opened fire at a Sunday church service. Then we saw it in Florida earlier this year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland. Unfortunately, in recent years there have been plenty of examples--too many examples, actually--with too many lives lost and far too few solutions for families reeling from the aftermath.

There are two things that strike me are clear, though. The first is that we need to better protect our students, secure our schools, and keep weapons out of the hands of those who are a danger to themselves and others. The second thing is to acknowledge that we haven't yet been able to do this effectively. Something is wrong, because these school shootings keep happening.

It is no coincidence that these shootings mostly happen at public schools--or soft targets--and the shooters are usually male teenagers who attended these schools. These young people, I should add, are surrounded by a culture that condemns violence, on one hand, excoriating public officials for not doing more to prevent it, but celebrating violence on television, in movies, and in video games, which at least has the potential to desensitize especially vulnerable young people.

Many proposals on how to address this pervasive problem focus on the guns themselves, not on the individuals who actually use them. They focus on restricting access to guns or banning specific firearm components for even law-abiding citizens. But any proposed fixes must also consider the root nature of the problem; that is, the deranged minds, the twisted rationalizations, and the tragic decisions of the people who commit these terrible acts of violence.

These shooters are obviously incapable of self-regulating their own behavior. How could we possibly address that? That is part of what we need to be thinking about. A gun can kill someone only if a person--a very sick or a very bad person--pulls the trigger.

So what have we done here in Congress to try to respond, as incompletely as I know we have? Well, last year, we introduced a bill called the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act, which was signed by President Obama in 2016. It is part of the answer. It provides more resources for communities and schools and mental health providers to deal with people before they become a danger to themselves or others. But there is more we can do, certainly in that space. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center has expanded the use of technology that can help us better utilize telemedicine to reach out to those in a mental health crisis and offer them an alternative course of treatment when they don't otherwise have access. We should consider that and other ideas in the days ahead.

The parents that lost their sons and daughters at Santa Fe High School are obviously still grieving today, and we should be grieving as well, not only for the people who lost their lives but also for the state of our Nation--one that continues to watch its young people self- destruct, engaging in violence that takes the lives of brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends, and classmates.

We have been told in recent days that grief and prayers are not enough. I agree. It is not enough to send our condolences to communities like Santa Fe. We need to look the families of the victims in the eyes and say: Here are the concrete steps we have taken and intend to take to make sure something like this never happens again.

I believe we did that earlier this year on a broad, bipartisan basis by passing legislation called the Fix NICS Act. Passing that bill was important because the last time I saw a major shooting in my State, it was at Sutherland Springs, where a man who had been discharged less than honorably from the Air Force for domestic violence convictions fell through the cracks of our background check system. He was able to lie and buy a firearm, even though, under existing law, he was disqualified and prohibited from doing so. But because of the broken background check system, he was able to get away with it. Our Fix NICS Act will help to fix that broken background check system. It was widely supported by Republicans and Democrats. We had 78 cosponsors in the Senate alone, demonstrating that solutions can enjoy broad bipartisan support if they actually make sense as opposed to engaging in ideological battles.

I am glad Congress worked together also to pass the STOP School Violence Act earlier this year, which I was proud to cosponsor. This legislation will help to provide our schools with the tools and resources they need to prevent violence through better equipment, planning, training, safety infrastructure, and law enforcement presence on campus. In this year's appropriations bill, we were able to allocate $75 million to start getting this initiative off the ground.

Now, people wonder: Can we possibly do this? Can we succeed in making our schools a safe place for mothers and fathers to send their children and where they are confident that everything humanly possible is being done to protect them? Well, I am not suggesting that we turn them into an airport, but my colleagues will recall that post-9/11, we have hardened our airports and our Nation's air travel in such a way as to make it virtually impervious to terrorist attacks. I think given the proper attention, the creative thinking, and the proper resources, we can also come together and make our schools impervious to this sort of attack in the future. If we can do it at our Nation's airports against terrorist attacks, we can do it in our communities and in our local high schools.

Finally--and thank goodness--we have seen the Justice Department prioritize firearm prosecutions with the number of defendants charged with unlawful possession increasing significantly over the past few years. This is because of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has made this a priority, and thank goodness for that. It has long been overdue. U.S. attorneys are now focused on enforcing laws that criminalize gun buyers who lie on their Federal background check. Previously, somebody could come in and lie on the background check, get caught, and nothing would ever happen to them. Now, thanks to the Attorney General and the U.S. attorneys, people are being prosecuted for lying, acting as a further deterrent on people who are felons or otherwise disqualified from legally purchasing firearms. And vehicles like Project Safe Neighborhoods, which the Senate passed unanimously last week, would fund task forces that target serious firearm offenders and get them off the streets.

All of this is a good start, but the shooting in Santa Fe shows we have a long way to go because every one of these shootings seems to be a little bit different.

Obviously, in Sutherland Springs, the failure seemed to be a background check system which allowed the shooter to buy a firearm, lie on the background check system, and not get caught. In places like Las Vegas, the bump stock allowed the person to essentially turn a semiautomatic rifle into an automatic weapon, which was otherwise illegal. We all learned about bump stocks. As an avid shooter and hunter myself, I had never heard about it before. Now the President has taken care of that problem.

We have acted in the wake of Parkland, FL, to try to ensure we get resources to our schools so they can better protect their students and deal with other aspects of this challenge, but we need to be more methodical in figuring out the solutions, then seeing what, if any, solutions would have actually prevented a shooting, and then look to see if those same proposals would have prevented other similar events.

In the case of Santa Fe, we know the shooter was somewhat socially withdrawn, but he was also a high school athlete and involved in his church. He posted troubling pictures and statements on social media, but as Governor Abbott said, he was not your typical troubled youth who people guessed one day might snap.

We also know Santa Fe High School had lockdown drills recently and that police officers were stationed on campus. Both of these likely prevented the event from becoming much worse; so good for them for the lockdown drills and having police officers on campus. We should be grateful for that, even in the wake of so much violence that leaves us with so many unanswered questions.

One of the two officers who rushed in to stop the shooter was John Barnes, who was, himself, shot by the gunman. He is a former Houston police officer who now works for the Santa Fe Independent School District. I am told his heart stopped twice while doctors and paramedics were trying to stem his bleeding, but he is a fighter and he held on. He is now in critical but stable condition in Galveston. We, of course, appreciate him and all other first responders and the other officers who courageously confronted the shooter and saved other lives. We wish Officer Barnes and his entire family the best as he fully recovers from his injury.

Another hero who has emerged, from accounts of the shooting, is Christopher Stone, a 17-year-old junior who, once the shooting started, blocked the classroom door, protecting his fellow students from the gunman. Tragically, when the gunman shot through the door, Christopher Stone was hit, and he did not survive, but we will remember him and all the other lives which were lost this week as we pledge to do better, to work harder, to work together, and to find new ways to protect our schools and our children from harm.

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Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven), and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

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