Chris Van Hollen: “I thank my friend and colleague from Pennsylvania for his leadership on this issue and his very clear remarks and call…”

“I thank my friend and colleague from Pennsylvania for his leadership on this issue and his very clear remarks and call to action. I am also very pleased to be here on the floor with my friend the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Murphy, who has been at the forefront of this battle for many years. We will not let up until we see meaningful action here in the Senate, because we have an epidemic of gun violence in this country. The only question is, What are we going to do about it? We have seen 293 mass shootings in the last 9 months. We see people being killed by gun violence in our streets and in our neighborhoods every day. All told, 100 of our fellow Americans die from gun violence every day. It can happen anytime, anywhere, to anybody. It can happen in our schools, our movie theaters, our homes, our concerts, our bars, our shopping centers, our streets. No one is immune or free from this violence. If this were an epidemic caused by a preventable disease, this Congress would convene on an emergency basis. We would be having a bipartisan gathering to immediately pass legislation to help discover new cures and vaccines for whatever disease was killing 100 of our fellow Americans every day. When it comes to gun violence, here in the U.S. Senate, there is nothing, no action. Inaction is complicity. It is complicity in the carnage when we know there are commonsense measures we can take together to reduce the gun violence. Are we going to stop every single gun death?…”