Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, we are on the verge of a historic vote that will determine whether we make America safer and assure that we do everything possible as Senators and citizens to ensure there are no more Newtowns.

On the evening of December 14, when we left the firehouse at Sandy Hook, there was a vigil at a church in Newtown, St. Rose of Lima, presided over by Father Bob, who is Monsignor Robert Weiss. It was a very moving and powerful experience. The church was filled. People stood at the windows to hear what was going on.

The Governor spoke and so did I. I said that evening: The world is watching Newtown. And, in fact, the world was watching Newtown, as we knew from the horror of that afternoon, when many of us arrived at the church, and first at the firehouse, to see families emerging and learning for the first time that their children, their babies, would not be coming home that evening. It was an experience that will stay with me forever. The sights and sounds of that afternoon, filled with grief and pain, will never leave me.

The world was watching Newtown that day and that evening and has watched Newtown and Connecticut in the days and months since, and I have been privileged to spend many hours and days and weeks and these past months with the families.

The world has watched the families, and it has seen in them and in Newtown--a great community, a quintessential New England town--strength and courage that was as unimaginable as the horror of that day, strength and courage that represents what is good about America and what is strong and courageous about our Nation.

The world has watched Newtown and the families of Newtown and it has watched Connecticut. Now the world is watching the Senate. It is watching the Senate to see whether democracy works. It sounds simple, but it is true. Will democracy work to reflect the majority of the United States of America, the majority of our people who say we need to do something about the guns. That is what the families said to me that day and in days since and what people in Connecticut and across the country have said to their Senators: We must do something about gun violence.

I remember talking to one of the families that evening and saying: When you are ready, we ought to talk about what we can do in Congress to stop gun violence. She said to me: I am ready now.

The Senate must be ready now to act. It must keep faith with those families and victims--as the world watches--with Benjamin Andrew Wheeler, age 6. His father David is here today, and Benjamin is here in spirit as we decide in the Senate whether we will move forward toward progress.

Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, also age 6. Her mother Nelba is here today. Ana is with us in spirit.

Dylan Hockley, age 6, whose mother Nicole is here, is also here in spirit.

Daniel Barden, age 7. His mother Jackie and his father Mark are here.

Jesse Lewis, age 6. His father Neil Heslin is here.

Mary Sherlach, one of the six educators killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, whose husband Bill is here--Jesse and Mary are here with us too.

We know compromise and action are possible because two of our colleagues have forged a bipartisan compromise that will enable us to come closer. It is imperfect. It is less than what I would have preferred in achieving universal background checks. It is a starting point. It is a step in the right direction, and it will help us achieve a larger bipartisan compromise because background checks are only one part of a comprehensive strategy that must include a ban on illegal trafficking, strengthening school safety, as well as mental health initiatives and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. I will be privileged to spearhead that effort on high-capacity magazines--hopefully next week--after today's vote, along with colleagues such as Dianne Feinstein, Frank Lautenberg, and my colleague, Chris Murphy.

Today, let us decide, as the world watches, there will be no more Newtowns. That is what the families want. That is what America wants. Let us resolve that we will make democracy work as we go beyond this first step and decide to proceed on a bill that also is imperfect but provides a starting point, provides a way forward, so we can make our communities safer.

The families of Newtown have performed an extraordinary service for our Nation. Not only has the world watched and been inspired by their strength and courage, but they have turned the tide. They have visited with our colleagues and they have impacted this process more profoundly and more directly than any other single group. They have shown we can break the stranglehold of special interests and the NRA, that speaking truth to power still works. To them we owe a special thanks. To them, as a nation, we owe a debt of gratitude for the lives that will be saved, for the futures that will be given. Even if their children and their loved ones will not enjoy that future, they have given futures to countless Americans who will be saved from the scourge of gun violence.

To them I say thank you. They are in this building, and their children, their loved ones, are with us in spirit as we take this historic step.

I yield the floor.

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