Gun Control Measures
Floor Speech
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Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, our country demands that we take action to confront the crisis of gun violence. One hundred people die from gun violence in our country every single day. If 100 people died every day because of any other single cause, even Republicans would call it an epidemic and demand that we do something about it.
Think about it. The lives of 100 men, women, and children are cut tragically short by someone using a firearm every single day in our country. Some of them are killed sitting in church, others while shopping for school supplies, and others while sitting in their classrooms. Some are targeted because they are Latino, Jewish, Muslim, Black, gay, or transgender. Some are killed for reasons we will never know.
Victims of gun violence come from all walks of life and different circumstances, but they were all struck down by someone with a firearm--firearms which in many cases were purchased legally because we have gaping loopholes in our gun safety laws; firearms which, even when purchased legally, too often end up in the hands of someone who has absolutely no business owning a gun.
There are a lot of steps Congress can take--and my colleague just articulated some of them--to combat the crisis of gun violence in our country. We can ban assault weapons. We can ban high-capacity magazines. We can look at requiring gun licensing at the national level.
Each of these steps would make a major difference in combating gun violence, but I acknowledge that they would be controversial and are unlikely to pass, to become law, in the current Congress. But there is one step the Senate can take right now to confront the gun violence epidemic in our country. The Senate can take up and pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, which passed the House nearly 7 months ago.
This legislation passed with a strong bipartisan vote to close the loopholes in our background check system. It would require checks not just for firearms purchased from licensed dealers but also from unlicensed individuals at gun shows, between friends, and between most unrelated people. Some people say that will not do much and that it will just be a drop in the bucket, but when that bucket is overflowing, as it is now, with the blood of innocent people, anything we do will help curb this epidemic.
At a time when our country is deeply divided on so many issues, it is noteworthy that 90 percent of Americans support universal background checks--90 percent. The American public knows a sensible gun safety bill when they see one, even if too many Members of Congress remain blind.
Sensible gun safety laws work. I know that because Hawaii, which has some of the most restrictive gun laws on the books, is, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the State with the lowest rate of death by firearms in the Nation. Anyone in Hawaii wanting to buy a gun, whether from a licensed dealer or private seller, must apply for a permit in their county, and they cannot receive a permit unless they pass a background check. The permit applicant has to sign a waiver allowing the county to access their mental health records, and, of course, there is a check of the Federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. If they fail a background check, they can't purchase a gun. They are reported to law enforcement and prosecuting officials in the State in case they try again to purchase a gun.
Being this careful about who can own a gun has resulted in Hawaii being the most gun-safe State in the country. In Hawaii, the CDC reported 2.5 firearm deaths per 100,000 people for 2017, the most recently available data. Compare that to Texas, with 12.4 deaths per 100,000; or Kentucky, with 16.2 deaths; or, sadly, Alabama, with 22.9 deaths per 100,000 people. Of course, there are many factors at play in these statistics, but we can't deny that being more careful about who gets to own a gun is a contributing factor. It is common sense.
To be clear, Hawaii is not a State devoid of guns. We have nearly as many guns as we do people. Hunting is one of the most popular outdoor activities in Hawaii. Some hunting seasons in our State are year-round. We have a number of shooting ranges and gun clubs in our State, and both they and our hunting opportunities are important drivers of Hawaii's tourism economy.
Clearly, gun safety, gun ownership, and hunting are compatible. Hawaii is showing the way. So knowing that we can balance commonsense gun safety laws with responsible gun ownership, as we do in Hawaii, we are left with a few simple questions. Why hasn't the Senate passed H.R. 8, a bill that would expand background checks for gun purchases? Why has the Senate let this House-passed bill languish for 200 days? Why is the Senate failing the American people?
In normal times, we would have a majority leader who would rush to pass a law favored by 90 percent of the people of our country. In normal times, we would be anxious to restrict firearms ownership to those who can pass a background check, just as we are anxious to ban flavored e-cigarettes that target children with addictive products. But these are not normal times. In these times, we have a majority leader who is sitting around waiting for Donald Trump to tell him what to do or doing the bidding of the NRA.
Instead of waiting around for the erratic, inconsistent, always- changing-his-mind Donald Trump to make up his mind--we should live so long--the majority leader should take action. It is time for the Senate to reassert its role as a separate branch of government, stand up to the NRA, and pass H.R. 8. It has been 200 days. One hundred people a day die in our country by firearms. Do the math. That is 2,000 firearm deaths since the House passed the bill.
It is way past time for the Senate to do something, but as we wait for the majority leader and the President to summon the fortitude to act, we are treated to a familiar refrain from the NRA and their allies in Congress. You have heard it before. ``Guns don't kill people; people kill people.'' Well, a person with a gun killed 58 people at a music festival in Las Vegas. A person with a gun killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. A person with a gun killed 32 people at Virginia Tech. A person with a gun killed 27 people, including little children, at Sandy Hook Elementary. A person with a gun killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. A person with a gun killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. A person with a gun killed 26 people at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX. A person with a gun killed nine people at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.
Since the beginning of August, a total of 113 people have been killed in mass shootings across the country, including incidents where a person with a gun killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, a person with a gun killed 9 people outside a bar in Dayton, OH, and a person with a gun killed 7 people in a shooting spree across Odessa-Midland, TX.
Obviously, people with guns kill people.
It is a sad day in our country when elementary school children have to practice drills in how to escape a masked shooter. Our country's continuing tragedy of these deaths has resulted in an entire industry of companies that come to schools and tell the schools: We can build you a safe school. We could end up with citadels for schools instead of the places of learning they should be. That is what is happening in our country.
It is past time to retire the NRA's old canard that ``guns don't kill; it is people that kill.'' It is people with guns who kill people. It is time for us to act.
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