Defending Public Safety Employees' Retirement Act

Floor Speech

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, last night a number of us from this
Chamber and many of us from across the country gathered for a
remarkable evening to support and honor an organization called Sandy
Hook Promise. It is an organization that was created in the wake of the
horrific, unspeakable tragedy in Newtown that involved the mass murder
of 20 beautiful, innocent children and 6 great educators. Sandy Hook
Promise was created to make some good come of this horrific evil, to
protect children against violence and prevent more gun violence around
the country, to advance the cause of mental health and wellness, and to
make sure that no one is alone, no one eats alone, no one suffers
alone, and no one endures mental illness alone.

Sandy Hook Promise is a wonderful, inspiring organization, and I was
proud to serve as the cochairman of this event, along with my great
colleague, Chris Murphy, who has been a partner in efforts to stop gun
violence in this Chamber and in Connecticut and around the country. I
was also proud that the dinner and evening honored two of our
colleagues, Senator Debbie Stabenow, a wonderful friend and
distinguished Member of this body from Michigan, and Pat Toomey, our
friend from Pennsylvania, who added his name and the weight of his
support to a measure in the last session that seeks to protect children
against gun violence by imposing a universal background check.

The evening was designed to honor our two colleagues, but it was also
so inspiring for me to hear from Nicole Hockley, Mark Barden, and Bill
Sherlach, whose lives were transformed and changed forever on that
horrific day.

I will never forget that day when I arrived at the firehouse in Sandy
Hook and seeing the grief and pain experienced by those families who
learned for the first time that their beautiful children would not be
coming home that night. The searing memory of their faces and voices
will be with me forever. Their courage and strength in the wake of that
tragedy will inspire me forever.

It inspired many of our colleagues to vote for the commonsense,
sensible measures that Senator Toomey and Senator Manchin of West
Virginia helped to spearhead. It was a bipartisan package of measures
that was advanced and advocated so ably by them and many of us
tirelessly in those days before the vote. A majority of Senators voted
in favor of that package of measures. Unfortunately, that majority did
not reach 60 votes. But last night was a time to renew and redouble our
efforts to prevent gun violence and to take positive, constructive,
commonsense, sensible steps to help prevent it around the country.

At the very outset of the evening, both Senator Murphy and I
requested a moment of silence to honor the loved ones and families in
Charleston, SC. Our hearts and prayers go out to them, as they have
since that unimaginable tragedy. It was a violation of not only human
life but the sanctity of a place of worship, just as Newtown involved
the violation of a place we regard as among the safest, our
schoolhouse--killing our schoolchildren.

When we finished that moment of silence, I am sure all of us retained
the grief and pain. We in Connecticut know and understand that grief and
pain and outrage because we remember that day when we felt it in the
same way the people of Charleston felt it when nine people were killed.
Their families were left with holes in their hearts just as we were on
that day in Newtown.

But the message of last night was not one of despair or desperation,
it was one of hope and energy. That message came from Nicole Hockley,
Mark Barden, and Bill Sherlach, the families of the Sandy Hook tragedy
who came here to Washington. They have continued their work through
Sandy Hook Promise and other organizations to make some good come from
that evil.

We can do it. We can make sure this country does more than grieve and
remember. We need to redouble our commitment as a nation to make our
Nation safer and better, not just for those 9 innocent people in the
church in Charleston or the 26 innocent people in a schoolhouse in
Sandy Hook but for the 11,000 people who are killed every year on the
streets of Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, in our rural and suburban
communities, and on our military bases. Every year, 11,000 people
throughout our country die from gun violence.

We will never eliminate all gun violence. We will never stop all of
the deaths and killings, but we can save lives. That is what the
families of Newtown said to me in the wake of their tragedy, and that
is what I hope our Nation will say to itself in the wake of the
Charleston tragedy. We will never stop all evil, but we can take a
stand and stop some of it.

Last night, I recalled the conversation I had with one of the moms
when I was at the funeral of her child. When I approached her, I said,
somewhat apprehensively: When you are ready, I would like to talk to
you about what we can do together to stop gun violence in this country.
And she said, with tears in her eyes: I am ready now. That was the
spirit the families from Newtown brought to our Capitol. That is the
spirit I hope we can honor with action and not just with words on the
floor of the Senate or in the eulogies that will be given tomorrow.

We need to have an answer for those victims of Charleston and Newtown
and the 11,000 people who die needlessly and senselessly every year
from gun violence. We need to answer the question that all of us have:
What can we do to stop gun violence? And there are some answers, such
as background checks, a ban on illegal trafficking, an end to straw
purchases, mental health initiatives, and school safety. Those are some
answers, and we should think of other solutions. We need to work
together, just as Sandy Hook Promise has done, regardless of party,
race or religion, where we live or what our interest is because we have
a common, shared interest in making our Nation safer and better.

That is why honoring both Pat Toomey and Debbie Stabenow was so
meaningful, because they have given so much with their courage and
leadership and have helped to make our Nation safer and better.

The killer in Charleston was not just a murderer, he was a domestic
terrorist. He meant to terrify, not just kill. He meant to start a race
war. He was a racist and White supremacist, and, rightly, has been
regarded as someone who came to that church not just to target innocent
worshippers but an entire community. He targeted the town of
Charleston, the State of South Carolina, and our Nation. His message
was not about hate for specific individuals, it was hate for an entire
race.

We should recognize domestic terrorism and racism for what it is. We
are not the only country with racists, but we are a country with a
uniquely high number of gun violence incidents.

The shooting in Charleston was a physical manifestation of ideas that
go beyond this murderer. To prevent future shootings, we must
understand and undercut the ideas for which he killed so he could
advance. We need to call this problem for what it is and understand it
and fight it. Hate-inspired domestic terrorism is an evil all its own.

We can make progress against gun violence. We know we can, just as
surely as 10 days ago no one thought the Confederate flag on State
grounds in South Carolina would ever be removed. No one ever thought,
plausibly, that the Governor of South Carolina would ever advocate it,
and now that has happened, just as commonsense, sensible measures
against gun violence can happen. We can prevail. Nobody thought before
Ronald Reagan was almost assassinated and Jim Brady was paralyzed that
the Brady bill would ever be passed. In fact, it took 10 years.

So we are here in a marathon, not a sprint. We are here for the long
haul. We are not going away, not giving up, not abandoning this fight,
and not surrendering to the forces of domestic terrorism or racial
hatred or gun violence. We are better than that as a nation.

As we leave and go back home for this recess, I hope we will not only
share the grief and pain of those brave and courageous families in
South Carolina who were so heroic in the face of evil but resolve that
we will redouble our efforts to raise awareness and organize people who
are of good will and want to stop gun violence and who need to be heard
because the vast majority of the American people want us to take
commonsense, sensible measures to make America safer and better.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

I yield the floor.

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