Across our land. I remember the sights and sounds of parents at the firehouse in sandy hook on the horrible day in 2012 when 20 beautiful children and six great educators died. The firehouse is where parents went to find out whether their children were okay. And the way they found out was that their children either appeared or they did not. For them in the cries and sobbing they experienced, the expressions of anguish, the look on those faces was only the beginning of their nightmare. But it transformed connecticut. And what we did in connecticut was to adopt commonsense measure, comprehensive steps to stop gun violence. But the lesson of connecticut is not only that those steps have reduced gun violence including homicide but also that states with the strongest laws are still on the the in ersy of the one mercy of the ones with the weakest because guns have no respect for state boundaries. They cross state lines and they do damage and death in states like connecticut with strong guns through the iron pipeline that comes from other states to our south. Since that day at sandy hook, there have been 2,218 Mass Shootings in the United States and over 2,000 times parents have sat as did those parents at sandy hook, have waited to know whether their children were okay. Children would left in the morning with no inkling about the violence that was to unfold. There is no reason that people have to live this way in the United States of america. America has no greater proportion of Mental Health issues than any other country. We have a higher rate of gun violence. We can prevent it through commonsense steps. Comprehensive steps that will save as many lives as possible, as quickly as possible by keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people. That is the principle of the two main poems likely to come before this body. Keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Do it through background checks which have to apply universally to all sales for them to be effective. Experts estimate that 80 of firearms acquired for criminal purposes are obtained from unlicensed sellers. A recent study found that states that have universal background check laws experience 52 fewer Mass Shootings. Background checks prevent people who are dangerous to themselves or others from buying firearms. And likewise, emergency Risk Protection orders take guns away from people who are dangerous to themselves or others. These two concepts have a common goal, the same end. They achieve it by complimentary means. The vast majority of perpetrators of Mass Violence exhibit clear signs that they are about to carry out an attack. The shooter in parkland, as my colleague senator Lindsey Graham has said all but took out an ad in the newspaper saying he was going to kill people at that school in parkland. The police were repeatedly alerted to his violent behavior, including a call from a Family Member who begged the police to recover his weapons. Today in florida she could ask for an extreme Risk Protection order under a florida law signed by my colleague, senator scott, when he was governor in the 17 jurisdictions that have passed emergency Risk Protection order laws. Enforcers can petition courts to temporarily restrict access to firearms with due process. And at a hearing this morning in the judiciary committee, we learned from one of the judges in Broward County who enforces these laws, they have worked to prevent shootings, including many suicides. And they enable Mental Health help to be available as well. These laws prevent suicide. The majority of those gun deaths in the United States in fact are suicides accounting for 60 of those 90 People Killed every d day. Emergency Risk Protection orders are effective but they are resource intensive. And that is why senator graham and i have worked hard and we are close to finalizing a measure that will provide grants and incentives to other states who are considering or may consider these kinds of laws together with senator graham, i have been working hard on this legislation. And we are close after extensive discussions not only between us but with the white house, with our colleagues to a bill that can muster bipartisan support and pass this body. The charleston loophole must be closed. Ive been leading that fight in the senate to fix this problem for years. The housepassed Bipartisan Legislation on background checks, h. R. 8, and on the charleston loophole that would fix the problem of wouldbe murderers having access to guns simply because information is unavailable within the time limit that is set. Guns should not be sold simply because a deadline for a background check is not met. Most are done literally within seconds or a minute, but some require more extensive work. There is no reason to wait to pass these measures. Neither should we wait to pass a safe storage bill that would have prevented deaths like we believe ethan songs perishing in gillford. This past january ethan song would have celebrated his 16th birthday but a year earlier he was accidentally killed by a gun stored in his friends closet. Accessible to him and a friend. Chris and michael and thousand of parents lose children to gun violence every year. Its a parents Worst Nightmare and in many cases safe storage including possibly sandy hook would have prevented a mountain of heart ache and a river of tears. And the songs have been so strong and courageous as have been the survivors and victims families in sandy hook. They have been the powerful face and voice of this effort, the most Effective Advocates and the groups that have been formed in these past years, raising awareness and mobilizing it, every town, giffords, brady, new town action alliance, sandy hook promise, connecticut against gun violence are only some of the moms demand action, students demand action. They are mounting a political movement, and we need to hear them. History will judge us harshly if we fail to heed that call for commonsense reform. But the voters will judge harshly as well, colleagues who fail to heed that call. And we need to keep in mind gun violence is not one problem. There is no one solution. There is no panacea. We need to aim at all these measures, including a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. The house just this week approved a ban on highcapacity magazines as well as an emergency Risk Protection order statute. Gun violence is many problems, not one. Its loopholes in the background check system. Its the failure to safely store firearms. Its an arbitrary deadline for completing a background check. It is the lack of emergency Risk Protection orders that take guns away from people who are dangerous to themselves or others with due process. Ive worked on this issue for more than two decades, almost three decades since i was attorney general, first elected in the state of connecticut. Theres been progress. The progress has achieved results. Now it is this bodys obligation to take that next step and i implore the president of the United States to state his support which my colleagues across the aisle have said is necessary for them to do what they think is responsible, and i ask them if the president fails to lead, you must do so. We must continue this fight and never give up, never go away for the sake of the survivors and the families who said from this gallery when we tailed to act in the wake of sandy hook shame, shame on us in fact if we fail to act. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Cardin mr. President , i join with many of my colleagues to make a Pretty Simple request. And that is, the issue of gun violence in this country requires us to take action. And the senate needs to do what it is historically the place to do. The presiding officer is in his first term. Im in the third term but the United States is the place where we debate on the issues. Its the greatest deliberative body in the world. Thats what i thought i was running for. Its time for leader mcconnell to bring up well past time to bring up gun safety legislation, for us to act, to do something about gun violence in this country. And, yes, we would hope that the president would lead, would provide that leadership that we hear after every one of these Mass Shootings that the president is engaged. Well, we need his leadership to bring us together on sensible gun safety legislation. But if we dont, we still have the responsibility here in this body to act, and we call upon leader mcconnell to bring forward sensible gun safety legislation. The United States is an outliar on gun violence. When you compare the amount of gun violence in the United States to the other developed countries of the world, in every category, multiply it times ten, 20, or 30, more likely for gufn violent gun violent type episodes here in the United States than other developed countries of the world. We have far more private ownership of guns in this country than among industrial nations of the world. We have far more mass killings. We have far more gunrelated suicides. The list goes on and on and on. So we need to take action. This is one area where we dont want to be the outliar. We want owe outlier. We want safe communities and inaction is not the answer. Yes, there are many things that we could do. Look, the people of maryland, the people throughout this country have been victims of this gun violence. In my own state of maryland, we had a mass shooting in june of last year at the capital gazette. Outrageous. People trying to do their jobs killed. Weve had of Course School shootings. Its time for this congress to take steps to reduce this risk. So inaction is not an option. What should we do . As my previous colleague said, theres a lot of things we should do. We should take a look at whether its reasonable for there to be private ownership of militarystyle weapons. I think there shouldnt be. Thats certainly a bill we could bring up. Weve seen these assault weapons used in a lot of mass attacks where you have multiple casualties in a matter of seconds where theres no possibility for Law Enforcement to respond to keep people safe during that short period of time. We should get rid of the highcapacity magazines. I know the house is working on that. Thats something that, again, is not necessary for the purposes of recreation. We should identify those people of extreme risk individuals and be able to put a put a flag on their ability to purchase a weapon. We need to invest in Mental Health. All that is important. The bill that we could pass today is the universal background check. The house has passed it, its been here. Its been here since february of this year. For seven months, that bill has been here. Universal background checks. It was passed with a strong bipartisan vote in the house of representatives, and its consistent with the second amendment. The Supreme Court has said that the right is not absolute. That certain individuals are not tiled to have firearms because of what they have done. Since 1968, we have provided forms to determine whether individuals are entitled to own a firearm or not, and of course in 1993, we passed the presale process for licensed dealers because thats where guns were being purchased back in 1993. So if you buy a gun from a licensed firearm dealer, you have to go through the federal the National Instant criminal background check system, as my colleague said it takes a matter of seconds. You can get it clear or not cleared. And it works. Three million guns have been denied transfers as a result of this check. But there are loopholes in it because of the way commerce is handled today. It doesnt cover private sales. Internet sales werent even available back when we passed these laws. We have got to close those loopholes. And it will save lives. States that have closed these loopholes have lower amount of gun violence than those states that have not, but we need a national answer to this. A person from maryland can go from West Virginia or to West Virginia, the laws are different. We need one state, one federal law to deal with closing this loophole. Today and every day in this country, 100 people are killed through gun violence every single day. We cant wait. We have to act. Thats what this body is best at. So, mr. President , i encourage President Trump to lead on this issue. I know he had some meetings this week. And i encourage our leader to allow this body to take up the universal background bill that passed the house of representatives by a strong bipartisan vote. Let us get that done. Let us tell the people of this country that we wont be silent and we wont be inactive in regards to the amount of gun violence in this country. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from new york. Mrs. Gillibrand mr. President. Mr. Cardin i ask unanimous consent that my statement in regards to stephanie gallagher, we will be voting on her later today for District Court judgeship, appear separately in the record in support of her nomination. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Gillibrand mr. President , i rise to join my colleagues in discussing our countrys horrific gun violence epidemic. I have risen to speak of this problem many times over the years. And to be honest, its exasperating to have to do it over and over again. El paso, dayton, gilroy, odessa, midland, brownsville, new york. The list goes on and on. City after city, community after Community Devastated by gun violence. We witness these tragedies. We watch hard breaking and nightmarish footage on our televisions. We offer our thoughts and prayers. We have heavy hearts, deep disappointments and horror, and still nothing. The senate has still not passed any meaningful legislation to address the problems, so here we are once again in this chamber. Democrats are speaking out on behalf of the American People, on behalf of the citizens who are protesting and demanding action, on behalf of our constituents who call and write and tweet at us every single day for commonsense legislation to help end the gun violence that plagues our communities. And we arent just speaking out on behalf of democrats because gun violence doesnt ask what Political Party youre from. It touches the lives of everyone in this country. The majority of the American People, democrats, independents, and republicans, all want action. They want their schools to be safe. They want a place to be able to go and worship and be safe. They want to be able to go and buy their backtoschool supplies and be safe. So lets be really clear about the root of this inaction. Its greed, its corruption. Its the rot at the heart of washington. And the n. R. A. Is no different. The n. R. A. Cares more about gun sales than they do about the people of this country. They care more about the gun manufacturers than they do our communities. And too many of my colleagues just dont have the guts to stand up to the n. R. A. There are three Effective Solutions sitting right in front of us, all of which are bipartisan, all of which have been voted on before, getting lots of bipartisan support. I really reject the false argument that because these commonsense proposals may not stop every single incidence of gun violence that its not worth doing them. We should do these. It makes no sense to stop doing the commonsense things just because it doesnt stop every gun crime, because the truth is its time to do something. We can and should ban assault weapons and large magazines. No civilian needs access to weapons of war. Those weapons are designed solely to kill large numbers of people very quickly in minutes and seconds, and our military train heavily to be able to use those weapons well. We can and we should pass my legislation to criminalize gun outrage. It will help flow the tide of illegal guns into cities like new york and chicago across the country where guns that are illegal are sold directly out of the back of a truck to a gang member or a criminal. Its one of the things that Law Enforcement keep asking us to do and have been for a decade. We can and should pass the red flag laws that are designed to make sure people with violent tendencies cant have access to guns. But the first and most obvious solution should be a cakewalk for this chamber, and thats universal background checks. This solution is supported by the vast majority of americans, and a great bipartisan bill has already passed our house. But its not even being considered for a vote right now in the senate. So its really on senator mcconnell right now. Its on him. Its his decision to protect our communities or not, to just protect our kids. As a mom, when there was a shooting less than a mile from theo and henrys school, all i could think about was getting there as fast as i possibly could just to make sure my child was safe. Thats the fear that every parent in america has today. And we shouldnt accept living in america where we have to worry that our kids arent safe in school, that theyre actually doing shelterinplace drills instead of mathematical drills. We shouldnt accept that world. We shouldnt accept a world where you cant be at a bible study with your friends. We shouldnt accept a world where you cant go to a concert or go to a movie and know that youre safe. But thats the world were living in. And the truth about all of this is right now, this moment were in, we have americans who are fueled by hate hunting down other people, with