Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, it is perhaps an understatement to say that it has been a difficult week for our country.
As Americans hold the city of Boston in their thoughts and prayers, I come to the floor to ask for another prayer for the small town of West, TX, in McLennan County, which is very close to Waco, TX.
I just got off the phone talking to the county judge, Scott Felton, and he described for me the terrible tragedy that occurred last night and the ongoing efforts to recover from that tragedy.
Apparently a fire started at an ammonia facility that then caught some tanks of anhydrous ammonia on fire and they literally exploded. And for those who aren't aware of the use of anhydrous ammonia, it is actually a source of nitrogen used in the cultivation of crops. You can imagine that at this time of year, springtime, when planting is starting, there is a lot of use for this essential fertilizer.
The fire started at about 7:30 last night, and the volunteer fire department/first responders were called. The problem was they showed up for a fire but ultimately ended up being victims of the explosions that ensued a short time thereafter when tanks of this anhydrous ammonia exploded. They don't yet know the number of fatalities.
I saw in press reports it could be between 5 and 15. Judge Felton tells me he fears it could be on the higher side of that number or even higher; they just don't know. They are continuing to try to find the victims and help those who need help.
We do know more than 100 people were wounded. An unknown number have lost their lives, as I said, but we do know that among the dead are a number of firefighters, volunteer firefighters, and other first responders. As typical, and as we actually saw in Boston, during a time of crisis in tight-knit communities such as West and cities such as Boston, we see some acts of real heroism that are encouraging at a time when we could use a little encouragement. We are seeing the resilience of a tight-knit, self-sufficient community in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy.
Businesses have reportedly stayed open throughout the night and neighbors have opened their doors to help support the victims. As is so often the case, ordinary citizens ran toward danger as they offered assistance. One resident loaded his car with people and made three successive trips to the hospital. This morning, as I was waking up and watching the news, I saw one gentleman who said he made multiple trips into the nursing home for nursing home residents who were not able to walk out themselves, to bring them to safety.
As one police officer at the scene said, ``The people of West will not let a person stand out in the rain.''
We, of course, grieve for those who lost their lives and we pray for those who are injured and still missing. I ask all Americans to keep the people of West, TX, in their thoughts and prayers.
GUN LEGISLATION
Mr. President, on another note--and I say this more in sadness than in anger--I watched the President of the United States say it was a pretty shameful day for Washington--on the national news. That was yesterday. I agree, but for different reasons than the President himself articulated. When good and honest people have honest differences of opinion about what policies our country should pursue when it comes to the Second Amendment and gun rights and mass gun violence, the President of the United States should not accuse them of having no coherent arguments or caving to the pressure. The President could have taken the high road, could have said, ok, now that we have been unsuccessful in these measures, let's move on to the area where we know there is consensus and that has to do with the mental health element in so many of these mass gun tragedies.
Instead, he chose to take the low road. I agree with him it was a truly shameful day. I and many of my colleagues are not worried, as some of the press like to portray it, about the gun lobby who would spend a lot of money and paint us as anti-Second Amendment. I don't work for them. I don't listen for them. I work for 26 million Texans, and I am proud to represent them. The views I represented on the floor of the Senate are their views. If I do not represent their views, then I am accountable to them and no one else, and, no, those of us who did not agree with the President's proposals are not being intimidated, as he said yesterday. It is false, it is absolutely false to say it comes down to politics, as he said.
For me, it comes down to a meeting I had with the families who lost loved ones at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I told them I was not interested in symbolism, in things we might be able to do that would have had no impact on the terrible tragedy that day or in Tucson or at Virginia Tech or in Aurora, CO. I am not interested in passing legislation that would have had no impact on those incidents and then patting ourselves on the back and congratulating ourselves, saying, haven't we done a wonderful thing, when in fact it would be to celebrate symbolism over solutions. I am interested in trying to come up with a solution.
I told them that day, the family members who came to visit with me as we grieved with them for their terrible loss, I told them that as I understood what they were telling me, they were not coming to sell a particular political point of view or an agenda or legislative laundry list of things they wanted to see passed. It boiled down to this. These families--who lost children and parents and spouses--want to make sure their loved one did not die in vain. They want to make sure something good comes out of this terrible tragedy. Why wouldn't we want to work together to try to help them achieve their goals?
The President indicated yesterday that the legislation he actually was pursuing, the so-called assault weapons ban, the background check bill, and others--he said none of that legislation would have solved the problem these families were experiencing. I happen to agree with that part of what he said. But instead of calling the President names and taking the low road as he did yesterday and chastising my fellow Senators for their good-faith disagreement on the best policies to pursue in order to make sure these families' loss was not in vain, I am here to ask for his help. I am here to ask for the help of every Member, to try to make sure we actually continue to look for measures we might be able to get behind to actually make things better, that would have offered a solution to some of these problems.
I have heard Senator Feinstein, who so eloquently spoke in favor of her proposed assault weapons ban. She conceded--I think as she had to--that Adam Lanza would not have been stopped by an assault weapons ban because he stole weapons his mother legally possessed, and he murdered his own mother before he then went to Sandy Hook Elementary School and murdered innocent children and other adults. The background check bill would not have had any impact on that. As Senator Feinstein conceded, as she must, neither would the assault weapons ban we voted on yesterday.
What might have an impact on incidents such as occurred at Virginia Tech? What might have had an impact on incidents that occurred in Tucson, where Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot and others killed? We know the background check system, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the NICS system that the FBI maintains, depends on the States sending information to the FBI that they could use to screen out gun buyers. As a matter of fact, the shooter at Virginia Tech had been adjudicated mentally ill by the State of Virginia, but that information was never forwarded to the FBI to be used on a background check so he could therefore purchase weapons without a hit occurring on the NICS background check system.
After 2008, we passed legislation encouraging the States, trying to incentivize them to send that information to the FBI so that would not happen again. We know from the Government Accountability Office, the GAO, that the record of compliance with that law is dismal indeed. Many States
simply have not done it. I believe there are things we can do to further incentivize the States to send that information so the background check system, maintained by the FBI, actually works to preclude shooters such as the Virginia Tech shooter from legally buying weapons because there would be a hit on the background check system and he would be stopped from that source of these weapons.
We know in Tucson, for example, the shooter there failed a drug test when he tried to volunteer for the military. That is also a disqualifying incident that had it been reported to the background check system, as it could have and should have been, would have prevented him from purchasing weapons legally without being blocked by a hit on the background check system. Why in the world wouldn't we look for ways to improve the current background check regime, to stop people like that from buying weapons and committing these mass atrocities?
I believe there is actually a way forward for us, and I hope Senator Reid, the majority leader, who controls the agenda on the Senate floor, will not choose to quit in our effort to try to find solutions, indeed something we need to pursue instead of just symbolic gestures which would have had no impact on these mass gun tragedies.
We do not know what the majority leader is going to choose to do. He may choose to get off the gun bill and get onto other business. It is his prerogative to file the appropriate paperwork to ask the Senate to do that. But it is our prerogative to say, no, we believe we ought to stay on this topic until we pass commonsense solutions that would actually make a difference in terms of these mass tragedies, and so these families could say, no, my loved one--amidst all this terrible tragedy, amidst this terrible grief and heartache they are experiencing that we can all just barely imagine, that they can say something good came out of their loss because Congress moved forward, putting politics aside, setting the talking points aside, and looked for some sort of common ground that would advance the cause of public safety and, hopefully, just hopefully, prevent some of these tragedies from occurring in the future.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
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