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Floor Speech

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Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, this year will mark 7 years since my community of Las Vegas was forever changed on October 1, 2017.

On that night, we experienced a tragedy on a scale far worse than anyone could have ever imagined. Ten minutes--10 minutes--is all it took for a gunman to open fire on an unsuspecting crowd at a music festival, killing 58 innocent lives, injuring thousands, and leaving a permanent scar on our State.

Sadly, in the years since, two more victims of that night's attack died because of injuries they received during the shooting, bringing the death toll to 60. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

The families of the victims of that tragedy had their world shattered that day, their lives forever changed--the families who didn't get to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, holidays; and the families who never got to say goodbye to their loved ones.

That night also changed the lives in our city--people who were attending or working at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, the first responders who ran toward danger to save lives. And in the following days, we saw lines of people, lines of people around entire blocks willing to donate blood, willing to help in any way they could.

This kind of selflessness embodies the incredible spirit of our community. It showed the country why we are Vegas Strong. And as we remember and as we reflect on this tragedy, we must also commit ourselves to action so that no community has to experience the pain and suffering like we did.

The 1 October shooter was able to inflict as much pain and carnage as he did by using bump stocks. This dangerous modification allowed his weapon to fire more bullets faster as a way to inflict the most amount of pain on our city. Over 1,000 bullets--1,000 bullets--in just a matter of minutes.

And it was in response to this carnage that then-President Donald Trump issued a Federal rule banning bump stocks. It helped save lives from these deadly modifications.

But, unfortunately, the Supreme Court overturned this commonsense Federal ban, allowing bump stocks to flow into our streets once again. This shameful decision--shameful decision--by the Supreme Court will put more lives at risk, which is why I joined bipartisan legislation to restore this commonsense Federal ban on bump stocks.

And when Members of this Chamber tried to pass this bipartisan legislation, extremists in this body, what did they do? They blocked us. And some even had the audacity to say: This legislation was trying to solve a fake problem--a fake problem.

Should we tell the families who lost a loved one at the hands of a firearm using a bump stock on October 1 that it is a fake problem? A fake problem that they are sad at every holiday and every meal and every Thanksgiving table that their loved one is missing? A fake problem? Their grief is real; their loss is real; and their loss is forever. This is not a fake problem; it is a very real problem. And there are real solutions. But once again, Congress has failed year after year to act.

Las Vegas knows what the real threat of bump stocks are and why we must act. And as we approach the seventh anniversary of this unthinkable tragedy, I ask all my colleagues in this Chamber to remember and to honor the memories of the victims, to honor their families, to honor everyone whose lives are forever changed from the night and the shooting on October 1, 2017.

I also ask that we come together, Republicans and Democrats, in a bipartisan way to save lives by just passing commonsense legislation to ban bump stocks.

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