Gun Violence

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SMITH. Madam President, I want to also just thank my colleague from Vermont for that lovely tribute to Judge Hall.

I can see that he meant a lot to you and was a great public servant. So thank you, Senator Leahy.

Madam President, in a year of so much heartbreak and grief and death, it almost escaped notice that we had gone in this country a year without a mass shooting in a public place.

But now we face the grim reminder of our American reality. In the space of a week, two separate mass shootings stole the lives of 18 people. And just weeks ago, we suffered a mass shooting in a health clinic in my home State of Minnesota.

So here we are again, thrust into a familiar cycle of collective grief and frustration and anger. Our hearts break for the families and loved ones of those whose lives were stolen. Our voices cry out for change to end the scourge of gun violence. And our anger grows as our voices are ignored and we are told by Republican leaders that there is nothing that we can do to protect American lives from gun violence.

Colleagues, it is our job to protect American lives.

Today, I want to share with you the voice of Veronique de la Rosa. Her son Noah, just 6 years old, was murdered in his classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary, and she delivered this eulogy for her son at his 2012 funeral.

I am going to read it in its entirety so that it can be included in the Record, the Congressional Record, and can serve as a reminder of the human toll that our gun culture has taken.

Veronique said:

The sky is crying, and the flags are at half-mast. It is a sad, sad day. But it is also your day, Noah, my little man. I will miss your forceful and purposeful little steps stomping through our house. I will miss your perpetual smile, the twinkle in your dark blue eyes, framed by eyelashes that would be the envy of any lady in this room.

Most of all, I will miss your visions of your future. You wanted to be a doctor, a soldier, a taco factory manager. It was your favorite food, and no doubt you wanted to ensure that the world kept producing tacos.

You were a little boy whose life force had all the gravitational pull of a celestial body. You were light and love, mischief and pranks. You adored your family with every fiber of your 6-year-old being. We are all of us elevated in our humanity by having known you. A little maverick, who didn't always want to do his schoolwork or clean up his toys, when practicing his ninja moves or Super Mario on the Wii seemed far more important.

Noah, you will not pass this way again. I can only believe that you were planted on Earth to bloom in heaven. Take flight, my boy. Soar. You now have the wings that you always wanted. Go to that peaceful valley that we will all one day come to know. I will join you someday. Not today. I still have lots of mommy love to give to Danielle, Michael, Sophia and Arielle.

Until then, your melody will linger in our hearts forever. Momma loves you, little man.

Veronique should not have had to eulogize Noah, her 6-year-old son--1 of 20 children killed at Sandy Hook.

So I ask my Republican colleagues to think of her when you suggest that families exaggerate their anguish for political gain.

Just yesterday, one of my Republican colleagues dismissed this grief as ``theater.'' No. This is life and death.

So I am angry. I am angry because I know that we have the power to stop this violence, and yet our Republican colleagues stand in the way. They refuse to work with us. They continue to put the demands of the NRA above the demands of the people we are elected to serve--that we stop this horrific gun violence, that we protect the people we are elected to serve.

Madam President, we need universal background checks. We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. We need to end this cycle, and we need all of us in Congress to find the strength and the humanity to take action.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source