Gun Violence

Floor Speech

Mr. MURPHY. On July 20, a few days ago, we had a pretty somber anniversary in this country. Senator Bennet came down to acknowledge the occasion. It was the 1-year anniversary of the shooting in Aurora, CO, in which a young man killed 12 individuals and wounded 58 others when he walked into a crowded movie theater at a midnight showing of ``The Dark Knight Rises.'' This, once again, showed the vulnerability of this Nation when the Congress refuses to act on the issue of preventing gun violence.

I have come down virtually every week--not, frankly, as often or as regularly as Senator Whitehouse has on the issue of climate change, but in the short time I have been in the Senate I have tried to come down to the floor virtually every week to talk about the victims of gun violence. Today it is an apt moment to recognize the victims in Aurora, who now have been lost for over a year.

This number represents something different. On December 14, our world in Connecticut was absolutely shattered by a global tragedy in which 26 people, adults and children, including 7-year-olds, died in a splatter of gunfire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as well as six of the professionals who were charged with protecting them.

What has happened since December 14 is, frankly, in a lot of ways even more egregious, even more unconscionable, even more difficult to swallow than what happened on that day, and that is that 6,497 people have died from guns since December 14 in, frankly, every manner.

There have been more mass shootings, accidental deaths, and suicides. There have been instances of one-on-one urban violence, suburban violence, and family-on-family violence. What has happened is this country has become kind of numb to it. We have to accept that every day we are going to be able to pick up a paper, and somewhere across this country there is going to be upward of 30 or 40 people who have died at the hands of guns at a rate that we can't find anywhere else in the civilized world. We just kind of accept it.

The number is startling. Since December 14, almost 6,500 people have died of gun violence. But we just can't settle on that number. We have to talk about who these people are. I am trying to lend some voice to the victims of gun violence every week on the floor of the Senate to try to spur the Senate to action because I have become resolved that the numbers aren't enough.

Apparently, this number isn't big enough for the Senate to do something so that maybe if we humanize these tragedies, that might do the trick.

A.J. Boik was described as a ball of joy by his friend Jordan. He had just graduated from high school, and he was looking forward to attending the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in the fall. He wanted to be an art teacher and wanted to teach others the joy he felt for art.

He was known as a big personality, so much so that after he was killed in that movie theater in Aurora, over 1,000 people came to his funeral. Among those mourners were his girlfriend who was there in the theater the day he was shot.

Matthew McQuinn was one of the heroes that day. He was there with his girlfriend Samantha and her brother Nick Yowler. When the shooter came into the theater and started spraying bullets, Matthew, as well as Nick, attempted to shield Samantha from the bullets.

Samantha survived but Matthew did not. He was working in a Target, which is where he actually met his girlfriend when they were working at another Target. He was remembered by his coworkers very fondly. He died that day saving a life.

Also a victim that day was PO3 John Thomas Larimer. He was one of two Active-Duty servicemembers who died as a result of that mass shooting. His girlfriend Kelley Vojtsek, whose life was saved, said this:

John and I were seated in the middle area. When the violence occurred, John immediately and instinctively covered me and brought me to the ground in order to protect me from any danger.

In that act, he saved his girlfriend, but he was struck with a bullet that ended his life.

Alex Sullivan was 27 years old. His friends called him a gentle giant. He was ringing in his 27th birthday, in fact, by going to the premier of ``The Dark Knight Rises.'' His family said he always had a glowing smile on his face. He made friends with everybody. He was a huge movie buff, a comic book geek--as his family called him--and the New York Mets.

The Sunday following his attack would have been his 1-year wedding anniversary.

Micayla Medek was called Cayla by her friends. She loved her friends and going out with her friends. That is what she was doing when she went out that evening to see this movie. Her family didn't find out she had been killed that day until 20 hours after the shooting. They had spent that evening and morning driving from hospital to hospital hoping to get news she had survived.

Veronica Moser-Sullivan was the youngest of the 12 people who were shot. She was 6 years old, not unlike the 20 6-year-old and 7-year-old children killed in Newtown. She was described as beautiful and innocent, excited about life. She was there that evening because her family wanted to get her mind off of the recent passing of her grandfather. She had become consumed with sorrow over the passing of her grandfather. So as a treat her family brought her to the premier of this movie. She was going to start swimming lessons the following week.

James Holmes walked into that movie theater with an AR-15-style rifle, which we have heard talked about over and over and over--the weapon of choice in mass shootings in this country. But just as important, he was armed with 100-round drums of ammunition. Why on Earth does this Senate allow for the continued legal sale of 100-round drums of ammunition? What possible legal reason could there be for the possession of 100-round drums of ammunition that go into an automatic weapon other than to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible? There is no reason a hunter or sport shooter needs a 100-round drum of ammunition. Yet we can't even get the votes to ban the sale of those deadly accessories to semiautomatic weapons.

I get it. These 6,497 people didn't die at the hands of an assault weapon, they didn't die at the hands of a 100-round drum, never mind a 30-round magazine, but these mass shootings are going to continue to happen. Frankly, the one that happened in Santa Monica not long ago barely made the headlines in this country. Three or four people dying at the hands of a semiautomatic weapon is nothing these days. Now there have to be 20 or 30 people die in order for it to be a big story. Expectations have changed because these shootings are becoming regular, normal occurrences. But we can't let this country become numb to mass shootings in the way I would argue we have become numb to the 6,500 people who have died since December 14.

I understand we tried and failed to get legislation passed through the Senate--supported by 90 percent of Americans--that would extend background checks to more sales of weapons, to make sure criminals don't have weapons, to make gun trafficking a crime in a way that it is not, to provide some more mental health resources, but we shouldn't give up. We shouldn't give up because there is going to be another Aurora, there will be another Sandy Hook if we do nothing, and 30 to 40 people will still die every day if we stand by and continue to allow this kind of regular, everyday gun violence to be the background noise of this Nation.

Maybe if the numbers don't move people, the stories of the victims will. Maybe that will be enough to finally prompt the Senate and the House of Representatives to action.

I yield the floor.

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