I was in santa fe the morning of that shooting santa fe high school is less than an hour from my house i was in el paso at the walmart for yet another senseless mass murder i was in dallas where five police officers were murdered by a radical i was in sutherland springs
In that beautiful sanctuary where a monster murdered innocent people i’ve been to too damn many of these senator from connecticut just said it’s time for us to do something i agree it is time for us to do something and every time there’s a shooting we play this ridiculous theater
Where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders senator from connecticut just said the folks on the other side of the aisle have no solutions well the senator from connecticut knows that is false and he knows that’s false
Because senator grassley and i together introduced legislation grassley cruz targeted at violent criminals targeted at felons targeted at fugitives targeted at those with serious mental disease to stop them from getting firearms to put them in prison when they try to illegally buy guns what happens in this committee after
Every mass shooting is democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens because that’s their political objective but what they propose not only does it not reduce crime it makes it worse the jurisdictions in this country with the strictest gun control have among the highest rates of crime and murder when you disarm
Law-abiding citizens you make them more likely to be victims if you want to stop these murders go after the murderers grassley cruz came to a vote on the floor of the senate in 2013. it got a majority vote on the floor of the senate 52 senators voted for grassley cruz
In the harry reid democratic senate nine democratic senators voted for grassley cruz the most bipartisan support of any of the comprehensive legislation so why did it pass into law because democratic senators including many of the senators in this room including the senator from connecticut who just said republicans have no answers
Filibustered the law and prevented it from passing demanded 60 votes if grassley cruz had passed into law sutherland springs very likely would not have happened why is that because the shooter there the murderer there had a conviction in the air force that the obama air force failed to report
To the background check system and grassley cruz mandated an audit of all of the convictions to make sure the background check database has those felonies in it not only that grassley cruz mandated that when a felon tries to illegally buy a firearm that the department of justice prosecute them the department of justice
Has a long and i think indefensible practice of not prosecuting felons and fugitives who tried illegally by guns if grassley cruz had passed the gun crimes task force that it had created would have charged prosecutors with going after gun criminals locking them up and putting them in prison that’s how we prevent these
Now we will learn in the coming days and weeks the exact motivation of the murderers in atlanta and boulder colorado we’ll learn what happened there but we already know this pattern is predictable over and over and over again there are steps we can take to stop these crimes
And you know what the steps aren’t the steps aren’t disarming law-abiding citizens every year firearms are used in a defensive capacity to defend women children families roughly a million times a year in the united states and the democrats who want to take away the guns from those potential victims
Would create more victims of crimes not less i agree it’s a time for actions and by the way i don’t apologize for thoughts or prayers i will lift up and prayer people who are hurting and i believe in the power of prayer and the contempt of democrats
For prayers is an odd sociological thing but i also agree thoughts and prayers alone are not enough we need action today chairman grassley and i are introducing again grassley cruz and i would ask senate democrats including some of our newer colleagues who just got here not to participate again
In the shameful filibuster that this body engaged in in 2013. let’s target the bad guys the felons the fugitives those with mental disease let’s put them in jail let’s stop them from getting guns let’s not scapegoat innocent law-abiding citizens and let’s not target their constitutional rights
