Tina Smith: “I want to also just thank my colleague from Vermont for that lovely tribute to Judge Hall. I can see that he meant a lot…”

“I want to also just thank my colleague from Vermont for that lovely tribute to Judge Hall. I can see that he meant a lot to you and was a great public servant. So thank you, Senator Leahy. Madam President, in a year of so much heartbreak and grief and death, it almost escaped notice that we had gone in this country a year without a mass shooting in a public place. But now we face the grim reminder of our American reality. In the space of a week, two separate mass shootings stole the lives of 18 people. And just weeks ago, we suffered a mass shooting in a health clinic in my home State of Minnesota. So here we are again, thrust into a familiar cycle of collective grief and frustration and anger. Our hearts break for the families and loved ones of those whose lives were stolen. Our voices cry out for change to end the scourge of gun violence. And our anger grows as our voices are ignored and we are told by Republican leaders that there is nothing that we can do to protect American lives from gun violence. Colleagues, it is our job to protect American lives. Today, I want to share with you the voice of Veronique de la Rosa. Her son Noah, just 6 years old, was murdered in his classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary, and she delivered this eulogy for her son at his 2012 funeral. I am going to read it in its entirety so that it can be included in the Record, the Congressional Record, and can serve as a reminder of the human toll that our gun culture has taken.…”