On the recordMay 13, 2013
on December 14 of last year the world watched in horror as we received news that in Sandy Hook, CT, 20 6- and 7-year-olds as well as 6 of their teachers and professionals who were charged with caring for them were killed at the hands of a gunman wielding a semi-automatic rifle armed with multiple 30-round clips. Twenty-six people died in that school that day, and the world has not been the same since. The State of Connecticut, as well as many other States, including New York and Colorado, passed some of the strongest gun laws in trying to bring some common sense to our gun laws in a generation. However, this body, in the days since Sandy Hook, has done nothing. We debated a bill which was supported by 90 percent of Americans that would extend background checks to most all gun sales in this country so we could make sure criminals and people with serious mental illness didn't have their hands on guns. Even though the measure received 55 votes here in the Senate, it didn't become a law because of a strange rule we have requiring 60 votes for most everything that comes through this place. While everything we have done here has been driven by the memory of what happened to those 20 beautiful little first-graders in our State, the fact is 28 people died that day--including the gunman and his mother--but that is still less than those who die every day in this country at the hands of gun violence.…
