Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask if the Senator from Connecticut will yield for a question without yielding the floor?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I thank the Senator from Connecticut for his work, along with the Senator from New Jersey, Mr. Booker, Senator Blumenthal, and many others, in bringing people together today to call for commonsense action to make our communities safer. I know Senator Manchin was here earlier. He has been such a leader on the bipartisan bill with Senator Toomey about criminal background checks.

I extend my heartfelt condolences to all the families of those who were massacred in Orlando and also those who lie injured--some very seriously, some critically injured--in hospital beds in Orlando today. My prayers are with the victims and their families.

I look at this, first of all, and I look at the Senator from Connecticut and think of the people from his own State, whom he knows so well, the parents of those young, little children who were killed at Sandy Hook.

I remember them coming to my office the day the background check bill went down. They came to my office, and a number of us were telling them that it was going to go down, that we didn't have enough votes to pass this commonsense measure for background checks. What I was struck by was that they knew that particular measure wouldn't save their babies, but they were there because they had come to the conclusion that this was the best way to save other children, to save other people from dying. And as they told me their stories--one of them told me the story of how their young son, who was autistic, who went to school that day had looked up at the refrigerator and pointed to the picture of his health aide. It was someone who was with him all the time. He could barely speak, but he pointed up at that picture in the morning. So as she sat in that firehouse with the other parents waiting and waiting to see if her child would come back, it became very clear that some children were never coming back, and hers was one of them. When they found that little boy, he was in the arms of that health aide whom he loved so much, and they were both shot and they were both killed.

As she told me that story, I thought, these parents are so courageous that they are coming today to try to advocate for something that they knew--they had come to grips with the fact that they wanted more, but they knew the background check measure was the best they could do to save lives at that moment. They knew the background check measure would especially help in cases of domestic violence and suicide because they knew the statistics that in those States that had passed such measures, they had seen improvements in the numbers for those kinds of deaths, so they were advocating for it. That was why they were there. Yet this body didn't have the courage those parents had to be there that day, to pass that measure.

So here we are today. We are looking at, first of all, a dangerous loophole that allows terrorists to buy firearms here in the United States. In Minnesota we have a little experience with this. We were the State that, before 9/11, some citizens--flight instructors were able to detect something was wrong with a man who cared about flying--Moussaoui--but not about landing. So they turned him in, and no one was ever able to connect the dots, but there he was in a jail in Minnesota.

I know a little bit about this as a former prosecutor, and I know a little bit about this because of the cases we have had in our State. We had dozens of indictments against people who had been trying to go join Al-Shabaab in Somalia or the terrorist group ISIS. We had three convictions in U.S. Federal court in just the last week. We know about this in our State and how close it hits to home. We love our Muslim communities in our State. They are part of the fabric of life. We have a big Somali community in the country. But we also know that we need to keep our communities safe. By working with our communities, we have been able to bring these kinds of prosecutions. When it is that close, you know you don't want people who are on the terror watch list to get guns.

Incredibly, current U.S. law does not prevent individuals who are on the terror watch list from purchasing guns. A total of 2,233 people on a watch list tried to buy guns in our country between 2004 and 2014, and nearly 2,000--or 91 percent--of them cleared a background check, according to the Government Accountability Office.

I am a cosponsor of Senator Feinstein's bill to close this loophole. During last year's budget debate, I joined 25 of my Senate colleagues, including my colleague from Connecticut, in offering an amendment that also would have stopped these dangerous individuals from buying firearms and explosives.

The background check bill--we know that this helps. That is why two-- at the time--A-rated NRA Senators, Mr. Manchin and Mr. Toomey, joined together to try to put forward some commonsense legislation. Sadly, sadly, that bill did not pass, and I believe we should bring that bill up again for a vote.

The third piece of legislation that I think is possible to pass, as I look at what has bipartisan support and what could make the biggest difference, is a bipartisan bill with Senator Kirk. There is a House bill, as well, and that bill focuses on victims of stalking, victims of domestic violence.

As we look at some commonsense measures, we know that not one bill is going to fix all these cases. Not one bill is going to make the difference in every case, but combined they make a major difference.

My question for the Senator from Connecticut is about an area where I believe we should be able to find consensus, and that is also in addition to the important closure of the loophole in the terrorist watch list for people buying guns, the background check bill--that is this domestic violence area. Studies have shown that more than three women per day lose their lives at the hands of their partners, and more than half of those killed are shot by their partners with a gun.

There is a simple bill that would first make sure that dating partners--the same rule that applies to those who are married would apply to dating partners. Even the Republican witnesses at our hearing with Senator Leahy and Senator Grassley embraced this portion of the bill. If people are dating partners as opposed to married, it should make no difference in terms of how you look at their ability to go in and buy a gun if they have committed an act of domestic violence.

The second piece of this bill is about stalking. If someone is convicted of a stalking crime, they shouldn't be able to go in and buy a gun.

When I look at these types of commonsense measures, I always think about my Uncle Dick. He loved to hunt, and he always would hunt deer. And I have to think to myself, would closing off the loophole in the terrorist watch list hurt my Uncle Dick in his deer stand? Not at all. Would putting the background check bills in place across the country hurt my Uncle Dick in his deer stand? Not at all. Would closing these loopholes on stalking and on dating partners in any way hurt my Uncle Dick in his deer stand because our State loves hunting? We are a big hunting State, so I always have to do a gut check when I look at these bills.

To the Senator from Connecticut, I would like you to answer that question. Of these commonsense bills that we have been talking about today, which could save hundreds if not thousands of lives, do you think they would in any way hurt those who are law-abiding citizens in our States and every State in this Nation that value their guns and value hunting?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I thank the Senator for that. I also want to note for the Members of the House here that Congresswoman Dingell is the leader of that bill on domestic violence in the House, so we have two bipartisan bills in both Chambers.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I ask if the Senator from Connecticut will yield for a question without losing his right to the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I thank the Senator from Connecticut. One of our fellow Senators noted that maybe not many people are watching. I have been around talking to people tonight, and I can tell you that a lot of people are watching this. The country is watching this because people have been waiting for action.

Many of us here have been involved in law enforcement. For me, it is about a series of pictures. It is the picture of those victims in Orlando, and with every picture, there is a story. Everyone killed in that massacre was someone's brother, someone's son, someone's loved one.

I think of the little girl with the blue dress with stars, walking down a sidewalk to a church. Her dad had been murdered by a madman, someone who was mentally ill, someone who was a perpetrator of domestic violence. Her dad was a police officer in Lake City, MN. It is a beautiful little town on a beautiful lake. He was just doing his job one day when he was called to a home. He went to the front door and had on a bulletproof desk, but the guy shot him in the head.

There we all were at the funeral, at the same church where only a week ago the children had been in a Nativity play and their dad was sitting in the front proudly watching. A week later, that same family was walking down the center aisle of the church. The little girl was in a blue dress covered with stars.

I think about those Sandy Hook parents--the ones Senator Murphy knows so well--who were in my office, as well as in many other Senators' offices, the morning of the vote on the background check bill. I told this story earlier this afternoon. There was a mom sitting there. They were all so sober and so glum because they actually thought there was a chance that the people in this Chamber would respond after they lost their little children in another senseless act of violence.

The mom in the office looked at me and said: You know my story? She said my son was severely autistic and could hardly speak. Every morning he would point up at a picture on the refrigerator. It was a picture of his help aide, the woman who was with him every day. The next thing she knows, she gets a call, goes to the school and sits in that fire hall with those parents. Some kids come in, and all the parents who are left know that they are the ones whose babies are never coming back. As she sat in that fire hall, she kept thinking about, of course, her son, but she also thought about the woman who was with him and sacrificed her life for him. She was found with her arms around him in that school. Both were shot dead. Those are the images that I think about--the little girl in the blue dress at the funeral, her daddy, a police officer, shot dead at the door; that mom in my office, her son and her son's faithful aide shot dead in that school. Then you think of all these young people killed in this massacre right in our midst in Orlando, FL.

(Mr. PERDUE assumed the Chair.)

We all know that one solution won't fit all. We all know that in some cases it is about an assault weapon and in some cases it is about background checks. In some cases it is about getting someone off a terror watch list who shouldn't have a gun. Every solution may be different, but when we start doing the right thing, we start saving lives.

Tyesha Edwards was a little girl who was shot at her dining room table while doing her homework. Her mom said: You get your homework done, you can go to the mall. A gang bullet right through the house. Melissa Schmidt, a Minneapolis police officer--young, excited to do her job--was shot in a bathroom by someone who was mentally unstable. These are the images I think about. And Senator Booker has pointed out so many times that this isn't just about the massacres, it is also about the individual cases that happen every single day, the domestic violence cases that happen every single day.

So while it is so important to focus today on this bizarre situation where you can have thousands of people on a terror watch list who can still get access to firearms, there are other things we can do as well. We can put sensible background checks in place. Think about Senator Manchin and Senator Toomey coming together at a time--two A-rated NRA legislators who were able to come together and put that background check together. And think about those parents from Sandy Hook who knew that bill would not have saved their babies but looked at the thing that could most likely get done in this body, what is the thing that could pass that would save the most lives, because they know that background checks, when done right and thoroughly, have saved lives. They mostly help in cases of suicide and in cases of domestic violence. They had the courage to come to this Chamber, to come to our offices time and time again to advocate for something that they knew wouldn't save their babies' lives, but they did it because they knew it was the right thing and they had the courage to do it--the courage that many people did not have in this Senate Chamber.

Domestic violence, background checks help. Do we know what else helps with domestic violence? Going after stalkers. Right now you can be convicted of stalking and still get a gun in this country. That is why we have a bipartisan bill in the House and in the Senate that would stop that.

We also bizarrely don't include dating partners, even though in many parts of the law, they are included. You don't have to be married to someone if you have a domestic violence conviction and you are dating partners. A Republican witness at a Judiciary hearing agreed that that part of the law could change, but we cannot get that simple thing changed in the law because people are not willing to take just the slightest risk to vote for it, even when their own constituents favor it. As Senator Murphy has pointed out over and over again, we have a situation where the majority of gun owners support these changes. We have a situation where the vast majority of people want to see these changes.

I thank the Senator from Connecticut and ask him just one question focused again on the terror watch list. I know Senator Feinstein released updated information from the Government Accountability Office just yesterday which showed that roughly 91 percent of known or suspected terrorists who attempted to purchase a firearm were able to clear a background check in 2015. I think people would be pretty shocked if they knew that statistic, and obviously one of the reasons we are talking all day today is that people understand how bizarre this situation is, that we can't even close that loophole.

I ask Senator Murphy, what does that mean to you when you hear a statistic like that, that you have 91 percent of known or suspected terrorists who can purchase a firearm but are still able to clear a background check?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source