On the recordJune 15, 2016
I thank the Senator from Connecticut. One of our fellow Senators noted that maybe not many people are watching. I have been around talking to people tonight, and I can tell you that a lot of people are watching this. The country is watching this because people have been waiting for action. Many of us here have been involved in law enforcement. For me, it is about a series of pictures. It is the picture of those victims in Orlando, and with every picture, there is a story. Everyone killed in that massacre was someone's brother, someone's son, someone's loved one. I think of the little girl with the blue dress with stars, walking down a sidewalk to a church. Her dad had been murdered by a madman, someone who was mentally ill, someone who was a perpetrator of domestic violence. Her dad was a police officer in Lake City, MN. It is a beautiful little town on a beautiful lake. He was just doing his job one day when he was called to a home. He went to the front door and had on a bulletproof desk, but the guy shot him in the head. There we all were at the funeral, at the same church where only a week ago the children had been in a Nativity play and their dad was sitting in the front proudly watching. A week later, that same family was walking down the center aisle of the church. The little girl was in a blue dress covered with stars.…
