Gun Violence

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I wish to thank my colleague Senator Murphy. He is my friend and partner on so many different issues but most especially on measures to stop gun violence in this country--commonsense, sensible measures he has championed so ably, and I have been very proud to work with him as a partner in spearheading this issue as well.

I wish to explain my reasons that I am unable to vote for the bill we are considering today, the bill that is presented for cloture on the motion to proceed this afternoon. People in the United States have a Second Amendment right to possess and use firearms. It is guaranteed by the Constitution. And there are legitimate ways people can use firearms in this country--recreational and sometimes commercial. Those rights are guaranteed by the Constitution, and this measure, arguably, is in service of those rights.

I cannot vote for a measure which makes owning or possessing or using guns more readily or easily useable when we have failed to act, and we have failed to act, on commonsense, sensible measures that will stop gun violence.

I voted to achieve cloture on a measure very similar to this one before Sandy Hook and before the Senate failed to produce the necessary 60 votes which were required to pass commonsense gun violence legislation a year ago April.

I can see the legitimate reasons to vote for the Sportsmen's Bill and to support cloture but not when this body has failed in its fundamental obligation to make America safer and to rid it of gun violence. We have an obligation to take first things first and protect our children and adopt the kinds of commonsense measures--background checks, mental health initiatives, school safety, and a ban on illegal trafficking--that are easily within reach and would be passed by a majority of this body if presented for another vote and if a majority of Members voting was sufficient rather than the 60 votes that is now our threshold.

I am reminded today of a victim of gun violence over this very weekend in the early morning of Sunday. A young woman in Bridgeport was gunned down by her ex-boyfriend, raging into her mother's house. First he shot her mother's boyfriend and then turned his gun on her because she had the audacity to end their relationship.

Her story puts a face on the reason I have offered a measure named after Lori Jackson, another victim of gun violence, to impose commonsense steps to take guns away from the people who are under temporary restraining orders as well as permanent restraining orders. Whether that kind of measure would have worked in this case is irrelevant. Her death was unnecessary, preventable, tragic, and painful to her family, not to mention her mom, who was in the house at the time she was gunned down and murdered.

Her death occurred within 75 minutes of another death in Bridgeport. On the east side, Abraham ``A.B.'' Davidson, a 23-year-old young man, was sitting on his house porch on Barnum Avenue in Bridgeport--gunned down.

In the case of Kiromy Fontanez--the young woman who was shot by her ex-boyfriend--the shooter, Jose Santiago, was apprehended almost immediately and gave a confession. According to Bridgeport police, the case is closed. The chief of the Bridgeport police, Chief Gaudett, had this to say:

Three separate incidents, six people shot, two people dead. I am very proud of the work that all of our officers do every day, but especially last night. It was a really trying night last night.

Chief Gaudett committed himself to begin a renewed effort against domestic violence inspired by the death of this young woman, Kiromy Fontanez.

In Connecticut we have already exceeded the number of domestic violence deaths that occurred in all of last year. Her death was the 10th in 2014 alone. Domestic violence takes a terrible, awful, unacceptable toll in lives and injuries, heartbreak and pain, and it is so avoidable and unnecessary.

We need to do more about domestic violence, but, as my colleague Senator Murphy has commented so well, the chances of death as a result of domestic violence are increased by five times when there is a gun in the house. Guns and domestic violence are a dangerous toxic mix, and that is the reason for our legislation, the Lori Jackson Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act. The legislation we have offered takes away guns, stops purchases and ownership of guns when there are restraining orders, when there is an objective reason to think there will be this kind of threat of violence and rage and wrath.

The memory of these two people--who died just yesterday morning in the early hours of the Sunday following Independence Day--should focus our attention again on what is important, what should be our priority, what should be our first steps when it comes to guns. That is to make America safer.

Four months after the brutal murders in Sandy Hook, this body said no to the grieving Newtown families, to the people of Connecticut, and to the vast majority of American people who continue to support commonsense measures such as background checks. This body voted to prevent gun violence legislation from getting a final vote.

Today we will vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to the sportsmen's bill. The fact that we are now considering this legislation to expand recreational shooting on Federal lands without addressing the scourge of gun violence is a stark reminder of the Congress's misplaced priorities and unfulfilled obligations.

I sympathize with what my great colleague Senator Hagan is trying to do.

If the legislation we are considering were part of a broader national discussion and conversation about who should possess guns and how we should keep them out of the hands of dangerous people--criminals and mentally troubled people who are dangerous to themselves or others--it would be a different debate on the floor and the considerations for me would be different on this vote.

I spent last week going from town to town in Connecticut listening to constituents who asked me, What are you doing in Washington? What I heard a lot was, What are you doing in Washington to stop gun violence? When will you bring back the measures to stop gun violence that are the legacy and the lesson of Sandy Hook--a tragedy that still causes so much pain to so many people, thinking of those families, the 20 beautiful children and brave educators whose lives were lost that day. I cannot go back to Connecticut and tell those people who asked me about what we are doing about guns in America that what we have done is made it easier for Americans to shoot at targets, made it easier for big game trophy hunters to bring their polar bear rugs back from Canadian hunting grounds, and reduced regulations that govern shell cases. That is not my idea of where our priorities should be.

First things first. Let's stop gun violence. Let's at least take steps to reduce its horrific toll of death and injury, its cost in dollars. Let's try to find that bipartisan ground on reducing domestic violence or reaching out to people who need mental health treatment, and let's find common ground on making America safer. That common ground serves our best instincts--what makes our Nation the greatest Nation in the history of the world, a nation whose independence we celebrated this weekend, with pride and joy, even as the terrible toll of gun violence continued in yesterday's early morning, over the weekend throughout America, where tens of thousands of deaths have followed the tragic, horrific, unspeakable tragedy of Sandy Hook.

I will vote against this legislation, against invoking cloture, with sadness and regret that that obligation and promise is as yet unfulfilled.

Thank you. I yield the floor.

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