WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Wednesday delivered one of his “Voices of Victims” speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate to honor and give a voice to those whose lives have been affected by gun violence. Murphy called on Congress to take action to pass commonsense gun reform laws that will make our streets, schools, and communities safer.

This week marks the two-year anniversary of the shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL, and Sunday will be the three-year anniversary of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. 

“As my colleagues know, I try to come to the floor every few weeks to talk about who these victims are, to give you a little bit of sense of the lives that are cut short. All of the promise that is erased from this earth every single day, 93 times, because of what is happening inside the epidemic of gun violence … Remember, we have done virtually nothing meaningful since the tragedy in my state in Sandy Hook. And, thus, the slaughter continues,” said Murphy.

Murphy continued, “Unfortunately, this country tends to only pay attention to the issue of gun violence when these mass shootings happen. And they are truly soul crushing, community-changing events. Newtown, Connecticut is never, ever going to recover from what happened there. But every single day, whether or not you see something scroll across the bottom of your cable news screen about a shooting, there are still upwards of almost 100 people dying every single day.” 

Murphy, the author of the Background Check Expansion Act, led a 15-hour filibuster two years ago this week to demand Senate votes on measures to combat gun violence. He has delivered more than 50 “Voices of Victims” speeches since joining the Senate in 2013.

The full text of Murphy’s remarks is below:

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I come to the floor to mark a very unfortunate date. We are recognizing the two-year anniversary of the shooting at Pulse Nightclub on June 12 and on Sunday, June 17, we're going to mark the three-year anniversary of the shooting at a church in Charleston. The killer in Charleston murdered nine people who were attending a bible study. The killer in Orlando murdered 49 people who were at a nightclub. I just came from my office meeting with one of the survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. 

About 93 people are killed every day from guns. That's a mixture of suicides and homicides, accidental shootings. That means that in the 731 days since the Pulse Nightclub shooting, we've had somewhere around 70,000 people having been killed by guns in this country. That's a statistic that has no comparison anywhere else in the world. Here in the United States, we have about 20 times the number of people on a per capita basis who are being killed by a gun than the average OECD competitor nation. Something is going on here that's different than what is happening anywhere else.

As my colleagues know, I try to come to the floor every few weeks to talk about who these victims are, to give you a little bit of sense of the lives that are cut short. All of the promise that is erased from this earth every single day, 93 times, because of what is happening inside the epidemic of gun violence and try to relate to people how furious this mounting cavalcade of those left behind are at our inaction. Remember, we have done virtually nothing meaningful since the tragedy in my state in Sandy Hook. And, thus, the slaughter continues.

Melvin Graham's sister, Cynthia Graham—she was murdered in Charleston as part of that shooting. And earlier this year he talked about how angry he is that Congress has done nothing meaningful to try to affect the reality of gun violence in this nation. He said, “You would think that this would be the time. Each time something happens you think this is the time we're going to get some action, some movement, some unity in Washington to do something. And each time they have let me down. They have failed me. They've shown me that they simply do not care.”

On the evening of June 17, 2015, Dylan Roof walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and killed nine people. He had a criminal record. He shouldn't have been able to buy a gun, but because of a loophole in the background checks law that allows for a gun seller to transfer a weapon to someone if the background check takes a long time, Roof was able to get a weapon, immediately go to this church, and kill nine people.

The reality is that FBI data indicates that over the last five years, 15,000 people have been sold weapons who shouldn't have gotten weapons under this loophole. That means 15,000 people are walking around the United States today with firearms with criminal records because their background check took three or four or five days. Now the reason background checks take a long time – most of them take about ten minutes – is because some people have complicated criminal histories, like Dylan Roof did. And so it simply belies common sense to say you’re going to give a gun to somebody simply because they have a complicated criminal background that takes a few days to sort out, an example of a crime that may not have been committed had our laws been different.

Until October 2017, the Pulse Nightclub shooting which happened on June 12, two years ago was the deadliest in U.S. history. These massacres that reach that tragic landmark of being the worst in U.S. history don't last for long given the increasing pace of gun homicides in this country. This was an individual who was known to law enforcement, who had been in the system because of activity online with his connection to terrorist groups. Had we had a comprehensive no fly ban in this country that gives the Attorney General the power to put people who are having conversations with terrorist groups on the list of those that can't buy guns, it's also very possible that Omar Mateen, the shooter in this case, would never have been able to buy a gun and end up killing 49 people and injuring 53 others—another example of our laws being inadequate to meet the moment.

But unfortunately, this country tends to only pay attention to the issue of gun violence when these mass shootings happen. And they are truly soul crushing, community-changing events. Newtown, Connecticut is never, ever going to recover from what happened there. But every single day, whether or not you see something scroll across the bottom of your cable news screen about a shooting, there are still upwards of almost 100 people dying every single day. 

People like Malachi Fryer who was 6 years old when he walked into a room with a hand handgun that was left unattended on a table. He took the gun back into his bedroom to play with it and accidentally shot himself. He was 6 years old, and he had just finished first grade in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. His school principal said, “Malachi was special in many ways. He had a smile that warmed your heart, a contagious laugh and a positive attitude. He was a little comedian in his classroom. He loved people, and he never met a stranger. Basketball was his pleasure and joy, and our hearts are heavy because a piece of our family is gone.” Age 6. One of the victims of the many accidental shootings that happen in this country.

In my state, Antonio Robinson was recently ready to graduate from Stamford Academy. And he was the former co-captain of the Stamford High School football team. He was standing on an overpass and he was shot to death. His sister said that he never bothered anybody and so he never thought that he had to dodge or hide from bullets. He was on his cell phone standing on the overpass. He wasn't even aware that he was about to be shot. His former coach and sixth grade teacher said that, “He wasn't the biggest kid out there but he played with a lot of heart and soul. He gave it everything he got.” Another one of his football coaches said that, “He was very respectful. He was just an awesome, awesome kid.” 18 years old, Antonio Robinson is gone.

Ryan de la Cruz was 17 years old. Seattle, Washington. He was a senior at Franklin High School. He dreamed of a career in the Marine Corps. He and his friends went to a local park one recent Friday night. They encountered another group. Some words were exchanged. Shots were fired. Ryan de la Cruz isn't living any longer. He was described by his high school principal as a sweet, thoughtful, inquisitive, and compassionate young man. He was determined to commit his life to the service of others. His father didn't want him to go into the Marines. His father was worried about the safety of his son. But increasingly, you couldn't change Ryan’s mind. He was committed to serve this country. And what he said to his father sticks with his dad. Because when he raised these issues to Ryan about his safety, Ryan said to his father, “Papa, wherever you are, it's God's will. If you die, you die.” Ryan de la Cruz died at age 17.

Bob Stone, 64 years old when he died. From Illinois. He was a community pillar, long-time member of the city council. Police and fire commissioner. He and his wife Rebecca were known throughout the community because they put together a festival every year in town. They were the organizers of it. They started it with Rebecca’s parents back in 2006 and they kept it up, something to bring the community together. This story is particularly hard to hear because it's a murder-suicide involving his son Vito. The two of them were in a tent in the backyard. They were spending the night with Vito's two young children. Something happened inside that tent. Vito shot his father, shot himself. Luckily, the children were unharmed. But for the rest of their life, they are going to have to deal with the trauma, the unspeakable, indescribable trauma of that murder-suicide taking their father and their grandfather right in front of their eyes.

The young woman I met with today who has gone through one of these traumas herself having survived the Pulse shooting from two years ago speaks about that same kind of trauma. Her life is fundamentally changed from that day. Relations with her family members have been ruptured. She lost her cousin inside the nightclub that night. It's a reminder that researchers tell us every time one person is shot, there are likely 20 other people who experience some kind of trauma based off of that one shooting. So take the 93 people every single day, multiply that times 20, and you get the sense of just over a 24-hour period the catastrophe that happens in families and communities because of gun violence.

While today I won't go into the details about all the things we can do to solve this let me just share with you a statistic that I came upon the other day. My head is full of statistics to try to explain what is happening, but again, I come to the floor to tell the stories of these victims. Here's an interesting one. I've heard some of my friends say to me, well, America is just a more violent place and, sure, we have more guns than other places have, but there's a lot of things happening in the United States, different cultures living side by side, people with different backgrounds that may lead to more episodes of violence. Well, here's a really interesting statistic. Let's go back to the OECD countries, which are sort of what you would consider to be the most advanced 20 or so countries in the world. If you look at rates of gun violence, the chart tells only one story. The United States has a rate of gun violence about 10 people per 100,000 in terms of gun deaths. And there's no comparison. The next highest country is Finland, which has rate of about three per 100,000. The average country is down around one per 100,000. So you're talking about a rate that's ten times higher in this country than in other countries. 

But let's go to another measure of violence. Because some people will say, we're just a much more violent country. That actually is not true. We are actually by other measures a less violent country than all the rest of these. Let's take a look at another measure of violence. Let’s take a look at assaults. There is a statistic that measures reported assaults in these same countries. When you look at reported assaults, the United States is actually almost last. We aren't the country with the most assaults. We are close to the country with the lowest number of assaults. Belgium has more, Israel has more, Portugal has more, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Demark, Germany, Austria, Norway, Ireland, Finland, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Only Japan and Canada report fewer assaults per person per capita than the United States. So it's not that we are a more violent nation. It is that we are in particular a nation plagued by one type of violence—gun violence, which tends, of course, to be the most lethal kind, the kind that comes with the greatest degree of cascading trauma.

And so I know we have important business to do today, Mr. President, with respect to the defense authorization bill, and I and my state have some important equities in that bill that I hope can advance. But I still think it is worthwhile every now and again to come down to the floor and remind my colleagues that even if you don't read about an episode of mass violence today, there will still be about 100 people who lose their lives. It is an epidemic that only happens here in the United States, not explained by the United States being a more violent nation in general; simply explained by a nation that has more guns per capita and a Congress that is unwilling to make sure that only the right people get their hands on those weapons. I yield the floor.

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