A senator thank you, mr. President. Let me first extend my thanks to chairman shelby and to Ranking Member mikulski for putting together a truly bipartisan bill. Mr. Murphy im honored to be a member of the appropriations committee. This is a difficult bill to put together but they did very good work in the subcommittee to make this a product that both sides could support. And so i thank them for allowing me to be a part of that process. Second, let me acknowledge the remarks that senator mikulski who noted that in many ways the world and the country has changed since this bill was scheduled to come to the floor. Our heartbreaks collectively in this country for the citizens of orlando and as ill speak in a moment, in particular in connecticut. Our heartbreaks for the people of orlando because we know in a very real way the pain that exists there today but we also know how that pain is really never ending, how the ripples of that pain are unceasing and unrelenting and they span generations. They span neighborhoods. They span years. Newtown is still putting itself back together, probably will be for a long time and orlando the same. And so our heartbreaks for and so our heartbreaks for and so, you are breaks through a community is going through. But this is a different moment today that lies at the end of last week. There is a new sound in. A for this body to find a way to come together and take action, to do our part to his madness epidemic of gun violence than in particular this epidemic of mass shooting the plate this nation and no other industrialized nation in the world. Theres something fundamentally different happening in the united state that causes us to have a mass shooting in almost a month the basis, caused us to have 372 mass shooting. Definition of that would be former people being shot at anyone time and results in 80 or more people on average been killed by guns. Suicides commit Domestic Violence, accidental shootings and homicides. It may surprise you know that for those of us who represent connecticut, the failure of this body to do anything at all in the face of that continued potter isnt just painful to us. Its unconscionable. I cant tell you how hard it is to look into the eyes of the families of those little boys and girls who were killed in sandy hook and tell them that almost four years later weve done that in, nothing at all to reduce the likelihood that will happen again to another family. And i shudder to think what its going to be like for senator nelson four years from now to talk to the parents of those that were killed this weekend in orlando and tell them that four years after a window comment eight years after a new town, been utterly silent. Mr. President , i is it on this board dozens of times talking about the subject. Often i come down to tell the story of the voices of the big guns of these gun homicides, Mass Shootings just to make sure Everybody Knows so this isnt news to me, but im at my wits end. Ive had enough. Ive had enough of the ongoing slaughter of innocent and ive had en masse of inaction in this body. There is a different set of facts and every shooting. A deeply mentally ill individual who it then isolated in school and its neighborhood. A story of a young man who had a fascination with violent content and violent videogames. There is a story of a young man who had access to a very powerful weapon that was able to shoot 20 kids and kill all 20. Theres clearly a terrorist connection here a very confused young man. A very powerful weapon. History of interaction with the fbi, upholds and a network of surveillance and checks that we need to discuss. Every set of facts is different. But what unites all of the shootings from littleton to aurora to newtown to blacksburg to orlando is the weapon of choice in every case is a gun, often a very powerful gun, and aar fit teen style gun designed for the military, for Law Enforcement to kill as many people as likely as possible. What unites all of these incidents is our failure to do anything about it. No one mocking. T. They should anyone occur. No blog can allow us to say with certainty that there will still be killing in chicago and new haven and los angeles. There is no legislative guarantee that there will be another omar mateen. But the idea that we dont even try, the idea that we dont even proffer ideas on this floor, debate them as if sensitive to those of us who lived through this. I have Great Respect for the project that chairman shelby and Ranking Member mikulski have put on the floor. I know this isnt going to make the popular with many of my colleagues or with the of this body. But i dont think we should proceed with debates on amendment to this bill until we have figured out a way to come together on at the very least two simple ideas that enjoy this court that 80 to 90 of american. Two ideas from the two pieces of legislation that would have been potentially dispositive, impact with respect to the case in orlando. That is one piece of legislation that senator fred stein has introduced that would simply say if you are on a terror watch list that you shouldnt able to buy a weapon. I heard one of my colleagues talk about reservations. Im searching there is a way to bridge any divide we have on how to administer that protection in a way that could bring republicans and democrats together. Second, in order to make that connection meaningful, you also need to make sure that wherever he went the shooter by the time he goes through a background check. If you put terrorists or suspect a terrorist on a list of those prohibited by god, doesnt do you much good when around half of all gun purchases today i made outside of the back rent checks system. Lets say the yearly in the shooter was on a list that prohibited him from buying a weapon and he went to a store and was denied the air 15 style weapon because he was on that list. All he would have to do is go to a weakened gun show or go online and he would be able to get out but then without a background check. So if you really want to prevent terrorists or would be terrorists or suspected terrorists from obtaining weapons, you have to pass legislation that puts those on the terrorist watch list on the list of those prohibited to buy a gun. Give them an ability to get off the list if they are on their recovery. But that im on that list as a default. Exactly, you have to ask then the sales subject to back rent checks to make sure you create a web that catches the potential terrorist when he tries to buy the weapon. Mr. President , i am prepared to stand on the for an talk about the need for this body to come together on keeping terrorists away from getting guns through those two measures for frankly as long as i can because i know that we can come together on this issue and i know that there is other really important business to be done. I know people have amendments. I know theres other issues that senators would like to raise, but having come through the experience of newtown, ive had enough. It has been for years and nothing has been done despite the fact that 90 of the American Public wants us to act. The vast majority of gun owners want us to expand the reach of background checks. Polls suggest 80 of americans believe people on the terrorist watch list should be able to buy guns. There is no controversy about these two provisions. We can look it up. We can work it out today. We got a maturity of the senate to support mentioned to me. That legislation still exists. Senator schumer has introduced. Senator feinstein has introduced a bill to keep terrorists from getting guns. Im certain there are ways that can be made better. But as someone who represents the community of sandy hook which is still grieving today, i am going to stand on this floor and talk about our experience and sandy have a tremendous experience, they need to come together on this issue and making sure that dangerous people who have designs on mass murder dont get dangerous weapons as long as i can so we can give time to figure out a path forward to bring this body together on the issue of changing our gun laws so that they reflect the will of 90 of the American People. I know this is extreme but i am suggesting here. But we have had enough of an action in connecticut. And i just dont want the senator from florida who just spoke four years from now to say to those families that he couldnt do anything either. That may tell you what i mean about how this affects sandy hook in an ongoing way, why i couldnt help myself but to come down in take a stand today. The family is they are dealing with this grief in orlando are spread out and all over the great area. Its awful. I can imagine what its like to visit child. There are young men and women who died in that nightclub. It is Something Different when four or five of those kids lived on one road in newtown. All of a sudden overnight for five kids disappear. They are god. It is different when all the other kids in the school here those gunshots. They had to flee, stepping over the bodies of their administrators and their teachers. But pain states that do for a long time is a community. Some said in the months and months after what happened in sandy hook occurred, you could be in the classroom and hear a young child scream out the word that seems like a non sequitur. On one particular class to work with monkey. Every so often you would have a student stand up and yell monkey. What that was was a safe word. The teachers had worked out that if a conversation started in class about the shooting, about maybe what one kid had thought and the other student didnt want to be part of the conversation, remember there were survivors from his classrooms as well as kids from the classroom next door. If one kid didnt want to be in the conversation, the child would conversation, the child would stand up and say monkey. At the top of their lungs. And a teacher would come over and break up the conversation. I think about that a lot about little kids standing up and screaming monkey in the middle of the classroom as a reminder of how the trauma of these events does an end. They say in cities across america when one person a shot there were 20 people surrounding them. Friends, family members, aunts, uncles, children who experience posttraumatic stress after that event. Studies suggest theres 20 people that experience level of trauma. At least to a cycle of violence. Theater that comes from a london being killed often being killed off inmates to someone else getting killed as well. Part of the reason over memorial day weekend in chicago there were 60 people who were shot. So this grief is never ending for communities like newtown, which is why i am as passionate today as i was in the days and weeks following an wife for me at orlando is a breaking point. I just looked at myself in the mirror and as you will hear from some of my colleagues who will interject with questions, theyve reached a breaking point as well that we couldnt proceed with business as usual in the senate this week. We couldnt do what we have largely done after mass shooting at a mass shooting. We could go on and debate other issues and ignore the fact that the vast majority of americans, 80 to 90 want us to take this action and that it would be impactful. Again, you can say what i am proposing today wouldnt have changed the result in sandy hook because this individual did buy the weapon with a background check through legal means. Theres no one change no one change and not thats going to to every situation. But it potentially would have been if tackled in orlando as im sure senator feinstein relics claimed later today, there is the possibility of her bill had been in effect, the bill could have put this individual on a list that wouldve prohibited him from buying weapons. Had weapons. Have expanded background checks to apply to Internet Sales and couldve been stopped stopped in its ability to get swept in. We cant know this for sure, but we can certainly say it would have been less likely he wouldve been able to get the weapon carry out this kind have both lost and supported by the vast majority of the American Public being in a. By coming together and finding a way to act on these two noncontroversial measures, will send an important signal to the American Public and what the murderers that we are serious about studying this epidemic. The people notice when we remain silent. I know its unintentional, but it almost seems to some people as if we dont care about what happens when we dont try to do anything about it. I understand that we have deep disagreements about how to proceed. To wit the exception of one week in 2013, we have not brought a debate to discord which we try to hash out their differences. Republican leadership didnt announce in the wake of her land a that we are going to spend this week working on trying to enact measures to make sure that another mass shooting doesnt happen. And in the fundamental disconnect with the American People, when these tragedies continue to occur and we just move forward with business as usual. I am going to remain on this floor until we get some sick all, sun sign that we can come together on these two measures, that we can get a path forward on addressing this epidemic in a meaningful bipartisan way. Orlando is the worst mass shooting in american history. A gunman shot and killed 49 people and shot and killed at least 53 others outside of pulse, a sub for nightclub in her land to about 2 00 in the morning on sunday a gunman opened fire, a large sum for nightclub in orlando. It opened in 2004. The owner opened it to frank to promote awareness of the gay, Transgender Community ended hosted trend of love and events. There is one officer working security with the number of private Security Officers at the Exchange Fire with the gunman after this incident began at the gunman proceeded to retreat back into the nightclub in take the remaining club goers hostage where he held them for three hours and at 5 00 a. M. A s. W. A. T team comprised of two heroes stand with grenades in an Armored Vehicle appeared to gunman was killed in a firefight. One officer was injured. On first that rescued approximately 30 hostages. In a press conference at 10 30 this morning, police indicated 50 people were killed and 53 more were injured. The shooter was identified as omar mateen, 29, a citizen from st. Lucie county, florida. We now know that this shooter became a person of interest to bond for spending 2013 and the fbi that he made comments alleging possible terrorist ties and again in 2014 the fbi did open an investigation into the shooter but it was subsequently closed when they didnt think that it warranted any further investigation. Subtwo was armed with a glock handgun. He did obtain much vista by both of these guns legally, a handgun and a longtime. He bought them a week or two before the incident so its pretty clear he was buying these weapons within 10 to kill civilians. Prior to the shooting, mateen called 911 and pledged his allegiance to the boston bombers. Complicated storyline here. You know some of the other storylines about the shooting, whether he had been frequenting that club prior to entering it as a shooter. Its a complicated storyline here. But at the root of it is someone who had been flagged for the fbi. Someone who had access to a weapon that was not designed for civilian. Ar15 style weapons were legal in the United States until 2004 after being banned for 10 years. It is not coincidental that there was a massive increase in mass shooting in this country after 2004. We are still gathering information on the exact nature of the motives, but what we know is that this incident is the deadliest mass shooting in the highest casualty mass shooting in american history. But it is not the first and if we dont do something of ob the last. In 2009 in fort hood, texas, the gunman shot and killed 14 people and shot and injured 30 others at the Fort Hood Military pose. In august on a child and no creek in wisconsin, gunmen shot and injured three others at a sikh temple of the creek sikh temple creek. June 2015th in charleston and we are sitting on the oneyear anniversary of this mass shooting. A gunman shot and killed nine people at the manual african episcopal church, one of the oldest and largest black congregations in the old south. About a month later in july a gunman shot and killed five people including two s. U. S. Marines and naval officer in shot and injured two others. In San Bernardino at the beginning of december 2015th 2 gunman killed 14 people and injured 21 others at the inland regional center. I mentioned these particular shootings because these are the shootings that were investigated as an act of terrorism. These are the shootings that have involved connections to radical groups with the intention to commit an act of terrorism against a minority group. I think it is right that we drill down today on this issue of stopping wouldbe terrorists from getting guns because just since 2009, this would be the sixth american mass shooting to be investigated by the fbi as an act of terrorism. We think of terrorists as you stand is using bombs or explosive device as their weapon of choice. In fact, the reality is over the course of the last 12, it has been a military style assault weapon that has been the weapon of choice for wouldbe terrorists. The San Bernardino shooter and the other end of shooter shows a kind, not a bomb in order to carry out their attacks because it is frankly a lot easier to get a powerful rifle that was designed for the military and it is to obtain for construct a military capacity bomb or explosive device. And so, we have to admit there is this trendline has been in the direction of powerful fires are used to be in this country. By the way, through Bipartisan Legislation to carry out this distraction. You dont have to listen to me. You have to listen to terrorist organizations themselves. Isis today relies on mobile attackers in order to perpetuate its mythology of increasing strength. Why is that . Weve actually had success in reversing their territorial gains in iraq and syria. Iss is on the run in the middle east. They are far from being defeated. We need to take strong steps to continue to support the syrians, the rebel forces, to support the iraqi army to push isis back. But they have two narratives they had proffered in order to recruit people into their ranks. One, the caliphate was inevitable and growing. And for a long time that was. The socalled caliph