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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, we have a great number of holidays each year in America. But is there a more perfect holiday than the Fourth of July? We celebrate the birth of our Nation. We gather with our families for picnics, a trip to the beach, backyard barbecues, take in a baseball game, and go to a parade. It is just the ultimate American celebration. We relax, pull out our American flags, gather our kids, and thank God that we are born in this great Nation and can call it home.

But this last Fourth of July became a different scene in one part of my home State of Illinois. It was the first time in years that the people of Highland Park were able to gather together publicly. So there was a special celebration as they gathered at 10 in the morning for the Fourth of July parade.

Oh, in addition to the usual suspects at these parades, political candidates, there were a lot of groups just there in pure celebration: high school bands, gatherings of veterans, all sorts of groups in a wonderful, wonderful suburban town in the Chicagoland area of Highland Park.

Yesterday, we held a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee about the day of the July Fourth parade in Highland Park. I wish we didn't have to hold that hearing. I would rather it would have been some other subject, some other place. But it was the 10th hearing during this Congress--the 10th time--that we had held a hearing in the Judiciary Committee on gun violence--gun violence, the No. 1 cause of death of children in America. Let me repeat that: gun violence, the No. 1 cause of death among children in America.

Yesterday, we focused on Highland Park and the Fourth of July parade, and we focused on the obvious mass shooting incident that took place. And we focused on military-style assault weapons.

The Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, IL, was the 309th mass shooting in America this year. What is a mass shooting? When four people are either injured or killed--309 times it had happened before July the Fourth.

By the time of yesterday's hearing, 16 days after the Fourth of July, that number of 309 had grown by 47 mass shootings since the Fourth of July in America--16 days, 47 more mass shootings.

Where else on Earth is this taking place? Nowhere. Right here in the United States of America is the only place on Earth where mass shootings are happening on such a frequent basis.

In many of the deadliest shootings, the attacker used an assault weapon, a combat weapon--a gun specifically designed to kill the maximum number of people in just a few seconds; the same weapon we saw in Uvalde, TX, where the kids in their classrooms were killed; the same weapon we saw in the supermarket in Buffalo, NY, when early morning shoppers on a Saturday were killed; and, sadly, the same weapon that was used in Highland Park.

During the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, a deranged gunman perched himself on a rooftop, using a Smith & Wesson assault rifle, killing seven people and wounding dozens more. He shot 83 rounds in less than a minute. Let me say that again: 83 rounds in less than a minute.

This is Aiden McCarthy. Aiden is 2 years old. His mom and dad, Kevin and Irina McCarthy, took him to the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park. I first heard about him just an hour or 2 after this terrible incident. I called my friend Nancy Rotering, who is the mayor of Highland Park, and asked her: Tell me, what can I do?

She said: I don't know. Things are happening so fast. We actually found a 2-year-old toddler who was wandering on the street by himself. We don't know who he belongs to. His picture is being circulated in the community.

The conclusion was fairly obvious. Whoever brought him to that parade was not able to look for him and care for him. And the story eventually unfolded. Kevin and Irina McCarthy brought Aiden to the parade--his first parade. And then when the shooting started, they shielded him with their bodies. In a matter of minutes, Aiden lost both of his parents. Fortunately, a grandparent was located, and Aiden is in safe hands today.

But because of this assault weapon being fired on the crowd, he lost his mom and dad. That is the reality when a parent has to shield a child like this from a mass shooting.

Nancy Rotering, as I mentioned earlier, is mayor of Highland Park. She testified yesterday about the parade. She told us that when the shooting started, she thought the sound of bullets was actually a drum cadence from the local marching band. That is how fast the bullets were being fired.

When she realized there was an active shooter, she began evacuating the crowd. She said the adults she confronted stared back at her. They didn't understand what she was saying. But the children, the teenagers, they understood. This was a shooter; this wasn't a drill.

Did you hear that? The children and the teens at the Highland Park parade instinctively knew what was happening because they had been trained in their schools to deal with mass shootings. That is how common these mass shootings have become.

I grew up in a different era, Cold War era, where it was duck and cover under your desk for fear of a nuclear attack--an attack by the Soviet Union. These kids--our kids, our grandkids--are being schooled not just in the ABCs, but they are being schooled in survival, so that if a shooter shows up in a classroom, they know what to do to try to survive.

Mayor Rotering told the Judiciary Committee:

Our children are expected to return to school in [about] a month. . . . They are frightened to go back. . . . They are frightened to play outside. Many never want to go to . . . parade[s] again. For the rest of their lives, they will look over their shoulders, ready for another active shooter, thanks to the drills our society has normalized [in our classrooms].

She continued:

Playing outside is normal. Back to school is normal. Fear of a shooter is not normal; but now in Highland Park [Illinois] and so many other American communities, it is [the new normal].

It can't be said enough that mass shootings with assault weapons are a unique American phenomenon. They are devastating--so devastating.

I want to show you another picture with Aiden McCarthy. This is Cooper Roberts, 8 years old. Cooper and his twin brother Luke went to the parade with their mom and dad. And in the course of the shooting, he was shot, taken to the hospital immediately. He has gone through at least seven or eight surgeries now, touch and go for many days as to whether he would live. And, sadly, in addition to the damage that was done to his body, his spinal cord was severed by this same bullet.

You see, when you fire an assault weapon at a human body, it hits that body at three times the ordinary velocity of any other firearm. It is so powerful that it was originally designed by the U.S. Army to achieve a single goal described to us in the committee yesterday. That goal was to be able to shoot one of these AR-15s and pierce a metal helmet worn by a soldier 500 yards away--five football fields--the AR- 15. It is not another firearm. It is a killing weapon. And, unfortunately, Cooper Roberts was in the line of fire. We pray that he recovers.

His mom and dad have kept us posted, all of us posted, as to his progress. But if you think about the devastation that an AR-15 combat weapon assault rifle can do to a human body, imagine what it did to this poor little boy's body. That is the reality of the issue we are discussing.

Many gun manufacturers, like Smith & Wesson, Mossberg, Bushmaster, and Daniel Defense have launched ad campaigns marketing their assault weapons like they are fashion accessories.

Let me show you a few of them. This is from Mossberg:

Engineered to the specs of freedom and independence, stand and salute the tactical rifle. We are America's oldest family-owned firearms manufacturer, building dependable, hard-working rifles and shotguns since 1919. American built, American strong. Arm yourself with a Mossberg.

That is the type of weapon that shot Cooper Roberts, that killed the parents of Aiden McCarthy. How is it being marketed? A symbol of independence and freedom.

Some of these other ads--want proof of your manhood? ``Consider your Man Card reissued,'' says Bushmaster with their AR-15.

I want to make sure, as we said at the hearing yesterday, that these weapons are properly characterized. I will tell you how I characterize them. The manufacturers of these weapons should be ashamed of what is happening across America. To suggest that this typifies the values of this country is just plain wrong and offensive. It is time for us to name and shame these companies. It is time to hold them accountable for the devastation they made possible. How many AR-15s are there in America? We don't really know. The best estimate is 20 million--20 million.

I want to dispel a common talking point we hear from the other side of the aisle. We heard it yesterday. They claim our communities don't need new gun safety laws; all they need are good guys with guns. I wish it were that simple. It is not.

In one survey of 433 active shooter attacks, how many were stopped by a good guy with a gun? Twenty-two out of four hundred and thirty- three--about 5 percent. Half of those 22 were security guards and trained law enforcement who were there present on the scene and off duty.

The sad reality is, when the police come on the scene and someone is holding a gun, they don't know if it is a perpetrator, a danger, or somebody on their side. In many instances, they shoot the wrong person, making a split-second decision in seeing a person holding a gun.

So this notion that we are going to come to the rescue of one another and stop mass shootings is not a reality. Five percent of active shooter attacks were stopped by a good guy with a gun--5 percent. Imagine buying a car and being told there is only a 5-percent chance that the airbag will go off if you need it in a crash? You wouldn't take that car out of the dealership, and for good reason.

We heard testimony yesterday from RAND Corporation firearms expert Dr. Kyleanne Hunter. She told us that assault weapons make mass shootings significantly more lethal.

The evidence is clear. It is time for us to have a national conversation about America and mass shooting.

Let me say that the manufacturers shouldn't get off the hook. They aren't just selling you a product.

Let me show you one other thing that is particularly outrageous. Sadly, this is in my home State of Illinois. It is a JR-15. It is designed to look like the AR-15, the combat weapon assault rifle. It is lighter, so it can be carried by a kid. Here are the symbols of this JR-15. They are skulls, skulls of children. Each one of them has a pacifier in his mouth. It isn't just on this poster, on this ad; it is emblazoned on the gun itself. This is a kid's assault weapon. Think about that for a second. In America, we have reached a point where that is even thought of in light of the killing that has taken place.

The hearing yesterday showed an outpouring of people from Highland Park in numbers I never expected. I believe there were 100 people there who, on their own dime, came out to Washington to make sure all of us in Congress knew what happened in Highland Park, how that village and their lives were changed on the Fourth of July. What are we going to do about it--shrug our shoulders and wait for tomorrow's mass shooting? Sadly, we can expect one to come.

I listen to the defenses, but, frankly, I can't understand people trying to defend the right to own an assault rifle in America.

One Senator argued: Well, it is just an inanimate object, you know. Don't blame the object for the results.

I wonder if he feels the same way about a grenade launcher. Should people have the right to own grenade launchers? I hope we can all agree that is an incredible thought. Why doesn't this weapon fall into a similar category, a combat, Army assault weapon that is being used by individuals to kill so many innocent people in this country--kill them at a concert in Las Vegas, at schools in Connecticut, at schools in Texas, at Fourth of July parades in my home State.

Last month, we did come together--and I want to salute Senator Murphy, who is on the floor--to pass a bill that was the most important gun safety law we considered in three decades. I voted for it. It didn't address this issue at all except in the background checks for those under 21. And I am glad it did, but it didn't address the issue of whether these guns should even be in America at this point, legal in America. That, I think, is the critical threshold issue.

Incidentally, this shooter, who seemed to have a pretty ill-fated life from the start, managed to buy high-capacity magazines so that he could clip in quickly 30 rounds here, 30 rounds there, and fire off 83 times. Why in the world does anyone need a high-capacity clip magazine? I don't understand it. It doesn't have any practical value for sport or hunting.

We need to address the widespread, serious problem of civilian access to military assault weapons, even for shooters as young as 18.

I thank the people from Highland Park for coming yesterday and all the brave law enforcement and first responders whom I saw gather that evening when I arrived at Highland Park. We owe them a lot. They are doing an amazing job, and we should pay tribute to them and what they did. But even they, being present and armed, could not stop this from happening. They were up against a mighty weapon--a weapon we trust for the military, we trust for the police; a weapon which has no place in the hands of people like the shooter in Highland Park on the Fourth of July.

Are we going to continue this American tradition of mass shootings? Sadly, we will unless this body, this Senate, decides that it is worth the fight, worth the political debate. After Highland Park, count me in. I want to be on the record saying it is time to put an end to these assault rifles, these weapons of war which have sadly taken so many innocent lives like poor Aiden McCarthy's parents and five others who died in Highland Park.

I hope for our children's sake that we don't run away from this problem. The people in Highland Park had to run away from the Fourth of July parade, and now they are counting on us to stand up and face it squarely.

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