Tim Kaine: “I also rise to talk about gun violence. I express my appreciation for our Republican colleagues. Those of us on this…”

“I also rise to talk about gun violence. I express my appreciation for our Republican colleagues. Those of us on this side of the aisle feel very strongly about this issue. I understand we have gone a little bit past the time. I will try to be quick. I feel very strongly about it too. Let me just talk about two Virginia tragedies, and let me tell the story of a hero whose name we should all know. It has been interesting. I sat on the Senate floor and listened to a number of my colleagues' speeches. As they talked about gun violence and mass shooting in the United States, very few have mentioned that 12 people were killed in Virginia Beach in a mass shooting on May 31. They mentioned Odessa, they mentioned El Paso, and they mentioned Dayton. Why not Virginia Beach? Because there have been so many tragedies since May 31. The Virginia Beach shooting of 11 governmental employees and a contractor who was just there to get some permits for a building permit he was seeking happened barely 3 months ago, but it has already receded into the memory of virtually anybody outside of Virginia because the gun tragedies since have been the ones that have crowded into our minds. The fact that that has been allowed to happen--that we are so used to it now that the killing of 12 people in a mass shooting barely 3 months ago escaped people's memories--tells us we have become used to a situation we should never have been able to tolerate.…”