Umpqua Community College Shooting

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday another horrific episode of gun violence--the seemingly unrelenting stream of tragedy and horror--only this time it was visited on Oregon, in a modest mill town of Roseburg.

The scene of the carnage was a picturesque, some would say idyllic, community college campus just north of town, where a shooter burst into a classroom at Umpqua Community College and started methodically killing nine people, wounding seven others.

On the 274th day of 2015, this was the 294th such episode. President Obama made an impassioned, forceful, and poignant response--at once fierce and sad, as eloquent as anything I have heard him say throughout his political career.

And who could blame him? Not a single calendar week has passed during his second term without another mass shooting.

The core of his message was the question for all Americans, especially the apologists for gun violence: Why is the United States the only developed country in the world that cannot protect our families from gun massacres? No other country comes remotely close to this carnage. Why should we lose 15 times as many as our family members as Germany every year?

When other countries like Canada, Britain, and Australia--that are probably more similar to our country than any others--why were they able to respond not just with outrage or moments of silence, but with action after mass shooting events, to make a difference, to make their families safer, 10 times safer in Australia than in the United States? It is past time that people who claim to be leaders in both parties answer this question.

I am pleased that the response from my party was not one of hopelessness, resignation, or ``stuff happens,'' but instead calls to action with simple, commonsense steps that are widely supported by the American public.

I am pleased that Hillary Clinton was first and foremost with a strong call to action. I am pleased that Senator Bernie Sanders appears to be changing his attitude and policies on gun safety.

It is interesting that two Democratic Senators running for re-election last year, Mark Begich and Mark Pryor, who cast what I can only describe as a craven vote against universal background checks, lost anyway. It ought to be a message about our values and our direction. I am hopeful that there will be greater accountability for both parties to supply solutions.

There is no excuse for ours to be the only developed country that cannot protect our children. The American public should demand answers from everyone who pretends we can't protect our children. Ours is the only country, for instance, where leaders prohibit the government from even investigating gun violence, its causes, and solutions.

The President exhorted us to not be numb to gun violence. One is hopeful in the midst of this unprecedented bizarre Presidential nominating process, already in full swing, with more than a year yet to go, that perhaps we have the opportunity to make sure this doesn't leave the national political stage.

With comments like Republican candidate Ben Carson condemning President Obama's decision to visit and console the families in Roseburg in a private meeting, that somehow he would wait for the next one, it is stunning.

I was in Springfield, Oregon, when President Clinton visited those families, consoling them, demonstrating compassion and the concern of the country. It was a sign of respect and was moving to all who witnessed it. I can't imagine a more callous, heartless remark than that of Dr. Carson, who would wait until the next one.

Reasonable people should ask reasonable questions about reasonable solutions and demand from politicians their answer to the question: When stuff happens, why can't we protect our families from this slaughter, and what are they prepared to do to change it?

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