I thank Senator Stabenow for the question. We are asking the FBI to do more and more to protect us from an increasingly complex array of threats, and we are not giving them enough resources to do the job. The alternative that has been…

I thank Senator Stabenow because I think it is important sometimes to reset the floor and talk about what we are asking for. They are pretty simple, they are bipartisan, and they are noncontroversial outside of this body. One, we want a…

I thank Senator Brown. I think the answer is we have to look at ourselves sometimes, and ask: Have we fought as hard as we possibly could to galvanize the American public around these changes? The reality is--and I said this earlier on the…

I thank the Senator for the question. I just want to acknowledge we have had a number of House Members come to the floor of the Senate today to support our effort. Congressman Richmond, a good friend of mine and of Senator Booker, who has…

I thank the Senator for a question that is unanswerable. The answer is we cannot. As you know, there is a very real, palpable fear out there today. There is no way to look at what happened in San Bernardino, to look at what happened in…

I thank the Senator for that question. You just have to look to the data for the answer. We have had pretty robust survey data on the question of support for expanding background checks or support for denying access to guns for people on…

I thank the Senator from Virginia for his question. I think that is the essence of this debate, why we are on the floor today and why we are lodging this protest. If you look at why the ratings of Congress are so low, it is because of the…

I thank the Senator for the question, and the answer is yes, so long as you pair it with an expansion of background checks to make sure they are seeing these purchases wherever they take place. That is why we have asked for this body to…

I thank the Senator for her passion. It is not a coincidence that sitting in this front row, in this section of the Senate, are three parents of young kids. We are friends, but we are also involved in a common cause, and maybe we bring a…

I thank the Senator for distilling the reasons for our presence on the floor down to those points. We see this as possible. We see it as possible to get a concensus between the Democrats and Republicans to bring these two measures…

I thank the Senator from Massachusetts for those incredibly powerful words making clear what our moral obligation is. Our moral obligation is to witness a crisis happening at our feet and do something about it. Why have this job--one of…

I thank the Senator for his question. Of course they are commonsense measures, and, importantly, they are measures that are supported by the broad cross-section of the American public. What my colleague is proposing is only controversial…

I thank Senator Wyden for his question. It is a really important one because the number is certainly shocking for how high it is and how low it is at the same time. Let us take 2015. In 2015, there were 244 individuals who were on the…

I thank the Senator, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, for the question. That certainly is a big part of this story line, this toxic mixture of guns and restraining orders. It puts everyone in jeopardy. It puts the…

I yield to the Senator from Oregon for a question without yielding control of the floor.

I thank the Senator for his question, for his passion, and for his ability to articulate how complicated this issue is and the complicated nature of the motivations that led to the shooting in Orlando, which is why the Senator's…

I thank the Senator from Michigan for asking the question that is the crux of this debate. It is our responsibility to do everything within our power to protect Americans from terrorist attacks. The reality is, terrorist attacks can come…

I thank the Senator for that question in particular. I think back to where I was--and I think we all can remember with specificity where we were when we first heard about Sandy Hook, when we first heard that there were 20 dead children…

I thank the Senator. I think the question is simply: Why are you here--you asked for this job--if you didn't want to confront the big questions and the big problems? Nobody denies that this is an epidemic of criminal proportions. Nobody…

I yield to the Senator from Maryland for a question without losing my right to the floor.

I thank Senator Durbin for the question. Illinois and Connecticut have amongst the toughest background check laws in the Nation, but our laws are no good if the State next door to us has amongst the weakest laws in the Nation. Our Nation's…

I thank the Senator. I am reclaiming my time. I thank the Senator for asking that question because I think it is important for us to be clear about why we are here. We are here not to hold the floor for holding the floor's sake but because…

I thank Senator Markey very much. I think he has gotten to the root of why we are here. There are a lot of very important issues in this underlying bill. As I said at outset, it is uncomfortable for those of us who began here at the…

Through the Chair, I thank the Senator for the question, and let me say that I think that is why we are here. I think that is why we are here. This was just backbreaking. The idea of this body moving on as if it is just business as usual…

I thank the Senator for his question, and I want to thank him for the work he has done as our leader on the Foreign Relations Committee to make LGBT rights not just a domestic priority but an international priority for this country. I…