Gun Violence

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, 14 dead, 82 wounded--that grim statistic was reported this weekend. It was not from Baghdad. It was not from Damascus. It was not from Gaza. No, it was not from the Middle East. It was from the Midwest. It was from the city of Chicago--14 dead, 82 wounded over the Fourth of July weekend.

This morning the Chicago Tribune headline read: ``2 dead, 9 hurt in shootings on the South, West sides''--last night. A 17-year-old boy who would have started college orientation Thursday was shot to death Tuesday night in the Brainerd neighborhood, one of at least 11 people shot across the city since Tuesday afternoon. A boy was struck in the chest and back and died on the scene. Four minutes later, on the West Side, a 23-year-old man was fatally shot as he rode his bicycle in a Humboldt Park neighborhood.

The story goes on to recount each and every incident. These numbers cloak the grief that families are now going through as someone they love is either gone or seriously injured. When you listen to their voices, you understand what life is like in the mean streets on the South Side and West Side of Chicago.

Greg Baron, a 20-year-old from Chicago's South Side, has already been a victim of gun violence once. He spoke to the Chicago Tribune yesterday and said: ``I have to watch my back every day because I do not want to get killed or shot again.''

Marsha Lee, a Chicago mother, has already lost one son to gun violence. She recently described how she had to teach her three little girls how to take care of themselves when it came to the gunfire. She told National Public Radio: ``You have to get down low, get down on the ground, and stay on the ground until it's over, and when it's over you have to check yourself and check one another to see if anybody has been hit.''

Life in Chicago, life in America--I agree with Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago. This type of violence is absolutely unacceptable. While the number of murders in Chicago statistically is, thankfully, down compared to last year, there are still too many deaths from gun violence and too many people living in fear. Who pays the price? The families do, but all of us do.

The University of Chicago Crime Lab calculates the total cost of gun violence in America at around $100 billion a year--$100 billion. That is a staggering number. Cook County, which, of course, contains the city of Chicago, estimates the trauma care for each shooting victim costs $52,000 on average. So for last weekend, with 80 wounded Chicagoans, we just added $4 million in health care costs, assuming that they can be treated and released at some point in the near future.

It is time to do something about it. It is time to stop talking about it. I did some polls across our State, and even more important, as I visited the State, I asked questions from one end to the other. We are quite a diverse State. Southern Illinois is the South. As the late Paul Simon used to say: Southern Illinois is the land of grits and gospel music--small town America. It is rural. It is where my family roots are. I know what they think about guns. Guns are part of the culture. Guns are part of the family experience. A father taking his son or even his daughter out to hunt is an important moment in each of their lives.

They value the ownership of guns and overwhelmingly use them responsibly and legally for hunting and for target practice. Still, when you speak to those people about gun violence in the cities and ask them a very basic question, these proud gun owners respond in a way that I am proud of. They agree that no convicted felon and no person mentally unstable should be able to buy a gun, period.

We considered that on the floor of the Senate--the Manchin-Toomey amendment. Close the gun show loophole. Ask the question: Have you been convicted of a felony? Is there something in your background that suggests a mental instability that should prohibit you from owing a gun? We could not pass that measure.

But I offered another measure as well. It is one that relates to this basic issue. If we want to keep guns out of the hands of those who would misuse them, if we want to protect the rights of law-abiding, respectful citizens who own firearms and follow the law, then we should take care and make sure we do everything in our power to keep guns out of the hands of folks who will use them to hurt and kill innocent people.

The superintendent of police in Chicago is Gary McCarthy. I like Gary a lot. He came to Chicago from New York, hired by Mayor Emanuel. He really has rolled up his sleeves and gone out in the streets and tried to tackle this terrible issue of gun violence. They asked him about this weekend, with 14 dead and 82 wounded in Chicago.

He said: ``Something has to happen to slow down the straw purchasing that happens in this State.'' Let me explain that. Here is what the Superintendent meant. The law says that if you are a convicted felon you cannot buy a gun. So how do they get their hands on guns? Many of them send someone else who does not have a history of criminal convictions to buy the guns. That so-called straw purchaser, a third-party purchaser, purchases the firearm, walks out the door, and either gives it or sells it to the person who can go use it in the commission of a crime. Superintendent McCarthy identifies that as one of the key problems in the city of Chicago. It is a problem across America. Mayor Emanuel pointed out yesterday we need tough Federal gun laws ``so that the guns of Indiana and Wisconsin are not flowing just into the streets.''

Well, I agree with him. We have a bill before us, pending before us in the Senate. It is not technically a bill about guns and firearms. It is about sportsmen. A lot of provisions in there are good provisions. Some I may question. But by and large, it is all about sportsmen. Now we are being told that colleagues are going to come forward and offer amendments related to firearms and guns.

I may be an exception, but I welcome this debate. I want this debate. I want an opportunity to raise important issues about gun violence and gun safety in America. I am going to offer an amendment, an amendment which stiffens the penalties for those who purchase guns to give them to another person or sell them to another person to commit a crime.

What I said in Chicago I will say on the floor of the Senate. Girlfriends, wake up. When that thug sends you in to buy a gun, under this amendment you run the risk of spending 15 years of your life in a Federal prison. So think about it. Is he really worth it? Are you willing to take that risk and give away 15 years of your life so some gang member or thug can have a gun to go out on the street and kill an innocent person--so that another 15-year-old child can be gunned down, killed in the streets of Chicago or any other city and see their dreams absolutely disappear in the blood on the sidewalk?

I want to offer this amendment. I hope my colleagues, whatever their views on guns, will agree with me. This is no violation of a basic right under the second amendment to the Constitution. This just says that if you are going to buy a gun to give it to a thug to commit a crime, we are going to put you in jail for 15 years. Think about it. It is the only way that we can address this in a manner that will start to shut down this pipeline of guns flowing into the city of Chicago and cities across America.

Some of my friends in Illinois see this issue a lot differently. They think if everybody carried a gun then good people would shoot down the bad people. I am skeptical. History tells us that most of the time the guns that good people carry are not used as effectively as they hoped they would be used and sometimes even injure the person carrying it. I still trust law enforcement as a first line of defense for families and neighborhoods all across my State. Law enforcement has told us loudly and clearly: Stop wasting your time in Washington. Address the issues that make a difference in the neighborhoods and lives of families of Chicago and Illinois and this Nation. Make this a safer Nation--14 dead, 82 wounded over the weekend in Chicago.

I guess the question to be answered by the Senate is: Do we care? Will we do anything? This Senator is going to offer this amendment. I hope I get my chance. I hope the filibusters on the other side and from other people do not stop me. Is this a guarantee that this will become law? No, but it is a guarantee this week will not go by without an effort from this Senator and I hope from others to address this issue of gun violence.

I hope it is evidence that many of us believe the Senate is still an important part of American government that can address the problems that threaten good, decent law-abiding families all across America.

I yield the floor.

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