Senator klobuchar on her thoughts on gun violence legislation followed by Chuck Schumer and john cornyn majority whip. Think about the incredible courage of the people who were in dayton and el paso and odessa. Literally shielding her baby from death and she perished herself from gunshot wounds that she kept that baby alive. Or how about the grandpa who died shielding his wife and granddaughter for the offduty soldier who carry children away to safety. All that happened in that store. As we approach the anniversary of 9 11, i think also of the First Responders and all of these Mass Shootings and dayton ohio who got there in one minute but still be lost nine people in 30 seconds but they were there in one minute and saved so many lives. That is the courage of ordinary people doing extraordinaryd things. And i believe in this place of extraordinary power that they are courage must be matched and must be matched to that mom and grandpa and soldier in those First Responders. These are ordinary citizens who stepped up to save a life it is the least we can do to ematch their courage. The American People cannot afford but over the past year it seems to me we have lost our resolve. Today i implore my colleagues in the Republican Leadership to find their resolve once again and the courage just like the men and women did in el paso and dayton and parkland and newtown and charleston and orlando. How about all the families when they lose a loved one every single day to gun leviolence in homes and on the street. 1300 children die from gunshot wounds each year. That is a classroom of kids every single week. Yes, were back today and congress is back. I believe we should have come back sooner. We were in recess for mere hours when the gunman claimed lives of 22 people and a few hours i more when dayton claimed nine. I was among those who immediately called for the senate to come back for recess so we could vote on gun Safety Measures that had passed the house of representatives with republican support. I said we should come back for that vote on the background checks which by the way nine out of ten americans support. Which the majority of hunters support sensible background checks. Which the majority of voters who voted for President Trump support. Sensible background checks. I know the history. The lead sponsor of the bill to prevent perpetrators of Domestic Violence, people who have been convicted of serious Domestic Violence and stocking for possessing a gun and a longtime supporter of universal background checks to slow the assault weapon ban on magazines perk i was invited to the white house right after parkland right after all those kids died in that school. And this is a moment we can act with the president of the United States and i had a piece of paper that i saved i wrote down how many times he said we should pass the bill for universal background checks and stop the gun show loophole. Nine times he said it. Nine times. Seated next to the Vice President i told the president i come from a proud state looking at proposals like this i say to myself do they do anything to hurt a hunting tradition . They dont thats why the vast majority of hunters support universal background checks and a lot of these other measures we talked about that day in that Conference Room in the whitee. House. It was on tv so people could see it. There is evidence. I thought it was a done deal. But then what happened . The next day the president goes and meets with the nra and he folded. He folded despite the fact that on tv in front of the nation those surviving kids from parkland and the families he made a promise he did not keep. That is the history that i know and that i have lived in it doesnt end there. I go back to the saddest day in the United States senate for me. The morning of a vote on background checks this is after the sandy hook shooting. Those families were there. I had been working with some of the senators leading that bill and i had to tell them that morning to those parents who had lost their kids their Elementary School age kids in that school that we didnt have enough votes to pass the bill. One of thebe moms said to me, i will never forget the day, the last time i saw my sonev alive. He had severe autism so he cannot speak but every morning he would look at the school aid he loved so much who never left her side he would point at her picture on our refrigerator and that is what happened the last day when she saw him alive and then he wentth to school and then a few hours later she t was waiting with all of those parents and one by one the children came into firehouse and then the parents that were left they knew they would never see their babies again. She is sobbing in the firehouse she has a fleeting moment where she thinks of the school aid and she knows he will the aid would never leave his side. When they found them both shot to death, that school aid had her arms around that littlee boy. That mom was in my office that morning and had the courage to advocate for something she knew wouldnt save her kid because of the particular circumstances of how he got that gun but what she knew about the background check is that it saved more t lives because it helps the states that have it that has reduced rates of domestic homicide and it helps with suicide as well. In it probably would have helped in the midland and odessa we dont know the facts but we do know that somehow he failed a background check but somehow got a gun. Those parents had the courage but this place did not have the courage. That is the history i have had with this issue. It goes back even further to when i was a prosecutor and we had cases all the time, every day officers killed, children killed, women killed in their homes case happened after i left the job and was in the senate with the shooting of a Police Officer in a small town just doing his job and showed up for Domestic Violence call officers know how dangerous those calls are a young woman of Domestic Violence he was in the house the officer comes to the door doing his job the guy shoots him in the head wearing a bulletproof vest but it didnt protect him. The widow told me as i was there for that funeral the last time they were in that church was for the nativity play the kids were in and the next time after i christmas she ldwas walking as a widow down the aisle with her children and a toddler in her arms in a blue dress covered with stars. That is gun violence is not just one family or one victim but the family that will never be the same but our entire community. Thats my history with this issue. So when i come backhe here when i think of the courage of all those people and survivors in the Mass Shootings and how one by one how we made the sensible bills i dont know our excuse anymore to say if the president took a position on a bill we knew we would be making a law and not just serial votes i would be happy to put it on the floor. Than the president said congress will be reporting the ideas but the time for ideas is done. That passed in the house not the ideas but some really good things that passed to prevent a lot of violence including the background checks, closing the charleston loophole. Is White Nationalist went into the church to gun down those parishioners only because the background check was not completed, just a few more days but Police Officers can do their job to complete the bobackground check. Or my bill is sitting on leader mcconnells desk. Thats a loophole what is the status of the lot right now . If you are convicted of a serious offense of Domestic Violence against your husband or wife or someone who lives yin your house you cannot get an ak47 or a gun. Thats the lot right now. But if you are convicted of the same crime against a boyfriend or girlfriend, you can get the gun. We have had hearing after hearing about thisil bill. We have had hearings because it is so sensible to close that loophole because half of domestic homicides involve girlfriends. I remember back a few years ago we heard from the sheriff in wisconsin who described himself as a conservative and said dangerous boyfriends can be justro a scary as dangerous husbands they hit just as hard and fire their guns at the same deadly force. That bill is in the violence against women act right now sitting on leader mcconnells desk. That passed with 33 republican votes in the house of representatives. There is absolutely no reason we should stop a vote on the entire violence against women act simply because it includes a common sense provision. Those are the three bills right now still to be joined by bill. Why that one . Because in 30 seconds nine innocent people were killed in dayton ohio. The cops did everything they could. They were there in one minute and still nine people died. Background checks. Closing the loophole just so the cops can finish their vetting . Why would you want to cut that off . Closing the boy boyfriend loophe in the in the magazines. What i like to do more . With the assault weapon ban . Yes i would but right now we can get these done. So what do we get instead . Hear this. The president took a position on the bill so that we can wait to see if we can have serious votes the president says congress will report back to me withac ideas. This is a dangerous game of whack a mole that has to stop. People are dying while people point fingers. We can point our fingers and do both. Vote. We can do that today and we ask those bills be called out immediately. One issue in particular of importance coming upun is gun safety perk when the month of august within 60 americans were killed in
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