Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, in January of this year, I came to the floor to talk about and honor one of my constituents, Javier Martinez, who was killed on December 28 of last year, just as 2013 was ending. He was shot while walking to a friend's house in New Haven. He was 18 years old.

In the aftermath of that tragedy, I have spoken with Javier's family and his friends about his life and legacy. As I said on the Senate floor a few months ago, Javier was a kind and intelligent young man, well on his way to becoming a leader in his community. He cared a lot about the environment. He worked with the Nature Conservancy and the New Haven Urban Resources Initiative to plant trees and protect endangered species. His classmates at the Common Ground High School in New Haven would like to plant a tree at the site of his death and dedicate a garden in his honor because of his interest in the outdoors and the natural resources that enhance the beauty of our world, which he loved so much.

Yesterday morning I visited some of Javier's classmates at the Common Ground High School in New Haven. I spoke to a group of young people who were serious about ending gun violence because it is such a serious cause of heartbreak, grief, loss, and sacrifice--not just in New Haven, not just in Sandy Hook, but throughout our country in big and small towns, rural and urban neighborhoods, people from all backgrounds and different walks of life. I spoke to the Common Ground AP U.S. Government class, where the students and their teacher, Brian Kelahan, were kind enough to welcome me and share with me some of their views on gun violence and the justice system in this country. I told them what I firmly believe: that I have a duty to listen to them and to all people who live in Connecticut because they have a unique insight and a depth of understanding and perspective that should be shared here in Washington, DC, in this body and around the country.

It is my job to bring that perspective, those insights back to Washington. So I want to begin by showing my colleagues a picture of those Common Ground students who were Javier's classmates. This photograph was taken at the top of East Rock. Unfortunately, it is somewhat indistinct as to who is pictured here. But it is overlooking a scene that Javier knew well with people who were his friends. They are dedicated to ending gun violence in this country because they know firsthand the toll it takes. They have been no stranger to gun violence in their neighborhoods. Many of them have to travel long distances to come to this school--the Common Ground High School in New Haven--from neighborhoods that are afflicted with gun violence, and they suffer the traumatic, emotional, sometimes physical threats that come with that exposure to violence.

Connecticut also has been no stranger to gun violence over the last year and a half, and I have come to the floor many times with my colleague Senator Murphy to commemorate the courageous and strong people of New Town and in particular the families who suffered the loss of 20 beautiful children and 6 great educators.

What the students who met with me yesterday morning wanted me to hear bears telling and repeating here. They were speaking truth to power. What they wanted all of my colleagues to hear and what I strongly believe is that as tragic as the mass slayings are in this country, no less tragic, no less horrific, no less important is the shooting of one innocent 18-year-old young man like Javier while walking to a friend's house. It may not make the national news. It rarely does anymore because we have come to regard gun violence, in a way, like the background noise of our society. It may not feature prominently in the headlines. Individual gun violence is a plague, still, that affects all of us as it affects any one of us. We cannot let these shootings continue in our urban communities. Many of them are committed with handguns. Many are the result of illegal gun trafficking and straw purchases. Far too many are ignored by the news media--simply disregarded background noise.

Gun violence affects all of us wherever we live in Connecticut and the country. If anything positive is to come of these tragedies in New Town and New Haven--and in the 30,000 other deaths that have happened since New Town--as a result of gun violence, it should be the uniting and bringing together of all who have been touched by gun violence, which is all of us. That goal is one that will drive me, and I am sure others here, to seek an end to gun violence with commonsense, sensible measures, such as the ones we considered--background checks, mental health initiatives, school safety.

The Presiding Officer helped to craft a very sensible and commonsense approach to background checks. We prohibit felons, criminals, mentally deranged people, and addicts from having these firearms, but we have no universal background check system to make sure they do not purchase them. How effective can enforcement be if there is no real way of checking who is buying these firearms?

A young woman who is a senior at Common Ground, in fact, asked me what laws can be effective when people are willing to break them, buy firearms even though they are prohibited from doing so. That is an important question. The answer is that no law is perfect, none can be absolutely perfectly enforced, but regulations and restrictions on dangerous people having firearms can reduce the level of gun violence in our society, reduce the number of criminals buying weapons. Background checks especially have been shown--there is empirical evidence--to reduce the number of guns that get into the wrong hands.

Students and teachers asked me about the way our country deals with criminal justice. Systematic disparities continue to plague our justice system, resulting in severely disproportionate rates of incarceration for young men and women of color. They spoke about the overlapping cultures of law enforcement and school discipline and about the need to reduce prison populations and bring about much needed reform in the way sentences are calculated, not only as a matter of fairness but also to reduce the cost in our society of incarceration.

These young people are thinking about where our society should be going. What is our plan and our strategy for making our neighborhoods and communities better places and safer places to live?

I made a commitment to those students pictured here in this picture that I would come back again. And I will. I made a commitment that I would tell their story, which is really Javier's story--a story of hope and promise, dreams and aspirations, cut short by gun violence because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and murdered.

That investigation may be ongoing, but we already know the answer to the fundamental question: Can we do something to reduce gun violence? The answer is yes, in his name, in the name of 30,000 people who have perished along with him from gun violence, needless and senseless deaths that are all our responsibility.

I respect the Second Amendment, as I know the Presiding Officer does. I respect the right of people under the Constitution and the Second Amendment to own and possess firearms and use them for hunting, for recreation, target practice. I will continue to honor the memory of Javier Martinez and the lives and aspirations and homes of the students at Common Ground, and work not only to build that garden but to make the neighborhood around it safer and the community around it a more nurturing and better place to live.

I have made no secret of the fact that I believe this body has a responsibility to act, and its failure to do so is shameful and disgraceful. The students of Common Ground agree. If their aspirations include organizing to make more people aware of the need for this action, I commend them. In fact, I urge them to participate in this effort.

I wish to close with the words from a card they sent me with this photograph. The card read:

Senator Blumenthal, we are so grateful for your help in remembering Javier Martinez, supporting our Common Ground community and taking action to stop gun violence. It means so much to have you by our side as we recover and make meaning in this incredibly difficult time. Know that we will stay with you in the struggle to build a safe and peaceful community.

I know it sounds more like rhetoric than reality. But I will tell my colleagues in the Senate that as long as the young people of Common Ground and others like them are at our side, we will prevail in commonsense measures to reduce gun violence, and we will prevail in the fight to make America a better, safer place to live.

I yield the floor.

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