Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, when I woke up this morning, I had hoped that yesterday's tragedy in San Bernardino was just an unimaginable nightmare. Then, as I usually do in the morning, I went through the clips from my State and I read the headlines:

``Bloodbath in San Bernardino.''

``14 slain at California office party.''

``Carnage in California.''

``Shooting Rampage Sows Terror in California.''

``At Least 14 Dead in Mass Shooting.''

``Deadly rampage at holiday party.''

``A Day of Horror.''

``Horror Hits Home.''

`` `Horrific'.'' Just one word.

``Masked Mass Murder.''

These are papers all over my State and a couple of national headlines.

My heart is broken after this rampage that led to the tragic loss of life, so many injuries, so much trauma and pain for the people of San Bernardino.

I thank the medical personnel who are working as we speak to save lives and all the brave, courageous law enforcement officers who rushed to the scene and later stopped these killers.

We know the victims in this attack were county employees at the San Bernardino Department of Public Health. I began my career as a county supervisor, and I oversaw in Marin County the Department of Public Health. I know how dedicated those county employees are. They are right there. They are right there in the communities. And the facility was dedicated to helping disabled people. So for this to happen at a holiday party where these employees were gathering in friendship--it is a stunning shock.

While details about the motive behind this despicable attack are still unknown, here is what we do know: Because these killers used military-style weapons, 14 people died and 17 people were wounded in a matter of minutes.

The purpose of these guns, these military-style guns, is to kill a lot of people very fast. The scene looked like a war zone, and there is a reason for that--again, because these weapons are designed for the military. They are designed for the police.

I have to be honest with my colleagues: I have never heard one persuasive argument about why anyone else would need to have this type of weapon. These weapons of war just don't belong on our streets and in our communities. My colleague Senator Feinstein for years has been pushing sensible legislation that would keep these military-style weapons off our streets. We need to stand with her. We need to stand with her across party lines and pass it.

It is so discouraging that we can't even pass legislation here that would keep suspected terrorists who are on the no-fly list from legally buying a weapon--any kind of a weapon.

It isn't enough for us to keep lamenting these tragedies; we need to take action now, before something else like this happens again in the Presiding Officer's State, in my State. When we take an oath of office, we swear that we will protect and defend the American people. I just don't think we are protecting them when we allow these types of weapons to get into the wrong hands.

This year we are averaging more than one mass shooting every single day--multiple people killed by guns, innocent people, every day.

This is America. This doesn't happen in other industrialized nations. Thirty-one people die every day from gun violence. After 10 years of the Vietnam war, we lost nearly 60,000 Americans, and people were in despair. We lose more than that in gun violence in less than 2 years in this great Nation. If there were anything else that caused the death of 30,000 Americans a year, every single Senator would be in their chair and we would be demanding action and we would be crossing over party lines to stop it because that, my friends, is an epidemic.

People deserve to feel safe in their communities. I don't understand it. They deserve to feel safe when they go to a holiday party at work. They deserve to be safe sitting in these galleries. They deserve to be safe going to a movie theater. They deserve to be safe in their school when they are 6 years old or 16 or 26. They deserve to be safe in their workplace, at a shopping mall, at a restaurant, and at a health care clinic.

This is our job, to keep our people safe. We know the threats that face us abroad, and we have threats at home. So we need to do both. We need to protect our people abroad from threats abroad and from threats at home. The very best way to honor the victims of gun violence is to take sensible steps that are supported by the American people, such as universal background checks, safety features on guns, keeping assault weapons in the hands of our military and our police, and keeping guns out of the hands of people who are unbalanced, unstable, criminals. Then we can prevent these tragedies.

Will we prevent every tragedy? No. I know my friends will say: Well, someone can have a knife. Yes. It is a lot easier to get away from a knife than an automatic weapon that mows you down before you can even look up and figure out what is happening.

I am crying out today for support for sensible gun laws, and regardless of motive--regardless of motive--we need to make sure that military weapons belong in the hands of the military and the police. It is pretty straightforward. Our people are not safe. I don't care what State you look at, I don't care what city you look at, I don't care what county you look at.

San Bernardino is a beautiful place. I don't live far from there. I have an office about 15 minutes or less from there. People deserve to feel safe in our communities. So I send my love, my prayers, my solidarity to the community, to the families, to the first responders, and to everyone there. Yes, we are going to pull together, as all these communities do, but we need to prevent these things from happening because if we don't, we are liable.

I believe we are liable. We know what is killing people every day. It is gun violence, and we know it. I am not a lawyer, but I have a lot of family members who are lawyers--my son is, my father was, my husband is--and I think once you know something is happening and you can do something about it and you don't do something about it, you are liable--maybe not in a legal sense, but in a moral sense.

So I hope we can come together around this. Every time the press comes in and asks me, tragedy after tragedy after tragedy: Will something happen now? After Sandy Hook, I said: Absolutely. We are going to come together. We did not. We did not.

I want to close with this. In California we have tough gun laws. I don't know how these weapons got where they were. We will find out. People say: Well, we have these gun laws. Look at this; we have had a 56 percent reduction of gun violence since 1993 in my great State because we have taken action. But this is one Nation under God.

If somebody comes from a nearby State, from the North, from the East, and they have a gun--that is why it is so important for us to work together to have sensible national laws and universal background checks. Almost 90 percent of the people support it. The majority of NRA members support it. What is wrong with us that we can't do that? What are we afraid of?
These military assault-style weapons kill so fast--and so many people. We should make sure they are in the hands of the military and the police.

My heart is heavy and will remain so. This is supposed to be a great day for a lot of us who worked so long and hard on the highway bill. This was a moment we were waiting for, and that is what life's about. You know, there are these moments that you savor, and there are moments that you wish to God you never had to talk about or experience. That is the kind of day it is for this particular Senator, and I know Senator Feinstein feels the same way.

I thank you very much, and I yield the floor.

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