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Floor Speech

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Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, earlier today, I got to spend a little time with a close friend of mine, Sam Saylor. As I was talking to Sam-- resident of Hartford, CT, the city in which I live--I was thinking about who his son Shane might be today.

Shane had a tough life. Shane was born with a birth defect in which one of his arms was essentially inoperable. He grew up in really poor circumstances. He was often bullied. But Shane had a spirit about him-- a fighting spirit sometimes that got him in trouble but a spirit to rise above his circumstances, to do something with his life.

His mom--strong mom--Sam's dad clearly gave him a vision of what his life could be, such that when he was 20 years old, he had started a small business. He was buying cars that needed to be rehabbed and fixed up. He would do that, and he would sell them to make a little bit of a profit. It was an extraordinary endeavor for a kid who lived that kind of life, who had those kinds of obstacles.

I think about 12 years later--Shane would have been in his early thirties today. What would Shane be doing? Would he be running an autobody shop? Would he be an active member of his community? Would he be making a difference in the way that his father and his mother have? Shane could have been a life-changer, but he is not because on October 20, 12 years ago, Shane died. Shane died when he was selling one of these cars. He was meeting a prospective buyer. He brought his girlfriend along, and one of the group of kids who were with the buyer said something mean or coarse about Shane's girlfriend. Some words were exchanged. Shane, as he sometimes did, threw a punch. In the other group's car, there happened to be an illegal gun. They were furious that Shane had thrown that punch. They went and got that gun, and they shot Shane dead in cold blood.

Shane's mom got there before he died, at the scene. He died at the hospital. I just think about who Shane would be today, what great things he would be doing.

Two months later, the entire world woke up to the epidemic of gun violence in this country. Shane's murder happened on October 20, 2012. And then on December 14, 2012, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School happened; 20 first graders and 6 educators lost their lives.

I never really know what to say every year when I come down here to give this speech. But because this is the year that those kids would have been going to college and voting for the first time--this year of transition into adulthood--it is worth thinking about who they would be today and what amazing things they might be getting ready to do in their adulthood.

Catherine Hubbard, as early as preschool, just adored animals. And she knew, even when she was 6 years old, that her purpose in life was to protect animals. She would catch butterflies and put them in her hand and whisper to them, ``Tell your friends I am kind.'' And then she would let them go. She made business cards--she is 6. She made business cards for ``Catherine's Animal Shelter,'' because she knew that is what she was going to do. She was going to save animals as an adult.

Chase Kowalski was a jock. He loved to run and swim and bike so much that that year that he died, when he was 6 years old, he asked his parents to find him a triathlon to compete in. He was 6. You wonder, what triathlon--he trained for a triathlon. He ran in that triathlon. He swam in that triathlon. He biked in that triathlon. And he won his age group.

That kind of indomitable spirit--the willingness to tackle challenges, so big--that is a recipe for success in life. What would Chase Kowalski be getting ready to do right now? What big challenges in the world would he see as an opportunity to confront? What a difference might he be making in the world, having displayed those really rare characteristics as a 6-year-old?

Emilie Parker was a supertalented artist who didn't travel anywhere without her colored pencils and her markers. She wanted to do art wherever she was. She was very attuned to kids around her who weren't feeling well, who were feeling sad. And her immediate instinct when she would run into a friend who wasn't feeling good that day was to paint them a picture or draw them a picture to make them feel better.

This month, the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary broke ground on what will become Catherine's Learning Barn. And over the last 10 years, the not-for-profit that her parents set up in her name has conducted thousands of opportunities and workshops for kids to commune with animals.

There is a Race4Chase Kids Triathlon today. And so there are children all over Connecticut who are learning how to overcome obstacles by racing in their first triathlon, named after Chase.

And the Emilie Parker Art Connection has helped support arts programs that are under siege with local budget cuts. Not just in Connecticut, but all over the country kids are getting the opportunity to experience art because of the Emilie Parker Art Connection.

That is a lovely story: the triathlon, the animal sanctuary, the arts program.

But what would Catherine and what would Chase and what would Emilie have done with their lives? If they lived, what would all of these other beautiful girls and boys, their teachers have done with their lives had they been here today?

It is just unthinkable how many lives are cut off, how much genius is extinguished, how much change could have benefited all of us because we live in a world in which 100, mainly young men and women in their teens and 20s, lose their life every day.

But I am here to tell you that that is not the extent of the story, because it is not just those who die who have their potential extinguished.

I live in the South End of Hartford. The Presiding Officer lives in a neighborhood with high rates of violence, and he knows as well as I do the biology that impacts kids who wake up every single day fearing for their lives.

I have a group of middle schoolers who I sort of call my ``neighborhood kitchen cabinet,'' and I go and meet with them every month or so to get their feedback on what needs to be better about our neighborhood that we live in. And they regularly tell me that, for them, school is the safe place. It is their walk to and from schools, it is the weekends where they don't feel safe.

And when you have millions of children in this country who experience that exposure to violence on a daily basis--in Birmingham, AL, 58 percent of people live within a quarter mile of a recent fatal shooting. In New Haven--same number--58 percent of people live within a quarter mile of a recent fatal shooting.

When that is your daily reality, whether you survive the year or not, your brain is impacted as a child in a way that robs you of the basic skills for life's success: resiliency, grit.

It is not a coincidence that all the low-performing schools in this country are in the violent neighborhoods. It is hard to learn-- impossible--for those kids who see gun violence on a daily basis.

And so I wish I knew what Shane would be as an adult. I wish I knew what all of these kids ended up to be--where they were going to college, what their dreams were becoming. But make no mistake. The potential that we are losing in this country because of the choices we make here not to make combating gun violence a priority, it is extinguishing the potential not of 100 people a day--those who lose their lives--but literally tens of thousands. And it is just a choice we make.

Shane's first small business was a water-selling business. He asked his dad one summer if he could just set up a little stand and sell bottled water to people in the neighborhood. And so his dad fronted him the money and bought him one of those big Costco packs of bottled water. And Shane set out his little stand to sell the water in a neighborhood where, whether he knew it or not, he was already exposed to levels of trauma due to the loss of life that was happening almost every weekend that summer in Hartford, CT. And he put a sign in front of his table. He named his business Shane Oliver Sells. And he wrote the acronym: SOS.

When you send out an SOS call, right, it is your last chance. Right? You are on that boat. You have tried everything--everything. You tried bailing it out. You tried restarting the engine. You tried plugging the hole. You are done. The only thing left is to signal that SOS call so that somebody in charge will come and rescue you.

I don't know if Shane knew or didn't know what his acronym meant. But Shane Oliver sat out there every day in a neighborhood plagued with gun violence with a sign that said ``SOS.'' And it is representative of the millions of kids all across this country who every single day are sending out an SOS signal to the adults who are supposed to protect them. They are supposed to show up here every day and make it a priority that something like this never, ever happens again--where the kids who live in my neighborhood never, ever fear for their lives walking from their home to school.

That SOS call is being sent out from thousands of neighborhoods all across this country here. That call is being delivered to us. It has been 12 years since we lost these beautiful children and the adults who protected them. And it is about time that we respond to that plea for help.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Fetterman). The senator from Hawaii.

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