Dick Durbin: “If the Senator from Connecticut will yield for a question--first, let me say at the outset I thank him for his…”

“If the Senator from Connecticut will yield for a question--first, let me say at the outset I thank him for his leadership. I am happy to join with this willful band who feels as he does; that this is an issue long overdue and that the American people have asked us over and over again: When is Congress going to do something about these mass shootings and the carnage which has taken place? I would like to ask a specific question, though, about an element here. We have talked about terrorism, those who may be on a terrorism watch list or some version of it, which Senator Feinstein will address in her amendment, but there is a second part to this which is equally, if not more, important, from my perspective. We define mass murder as those that involve more than four victims, but many of us are living and representing communities where there is massive murder taking place over long periods of time. Maybe not so many deaths in one particular incident but over a long period of time. Yesterday, our colleague from New Jersey eloquently explained to us, in our private caucus luncheon, about the carnage in his hometown that has taken place in New Jersey for a long period of time. My question to the Senator from Connecticut goes to a city which I am honored to represent, the city of Chicago. There were 488 homicides in Chicago in 2015. The vast majority of those were shootings. Chicago's 488 murders were the highest total number of any U.S. city last year.…”