'Would Save Lives': Catherine Cortez Masto Calls Out Ricketts For Blocking Bill To Ban Bump Stocks

3 months ago

In remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NM) spoke about bump stocks.

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Transcript

00:00President, I rise today to express my deep disappointment when I just heard,

00:06unfortunately, from my Senate colleague from Nebraska, Senator Pete Ricketts,

00:11who blocked Senator Heinrichs and my, and Senator Collins,

00:18legislation, common sense, that would save lives.

00:21And I'm talking about Senate Bill 1909, which is the banning of unlawful

00:27machine gun parts, or what we are calling as the Bump Act.

00:32Now, it is shocking to me that my colleagues aren't willing to move forward

00:35on such an important issue.

00:37Bump stocks are deadly firearm accessories that turn

00:43semi-automatic guns into machine guns, which are illegal.

00:48Allowing a shooter to fire multiple bullets per second.

00:52Now, my husband and I are gun owners.

00:54We don't need a bump stock.

00:58And I know any common sense gun owner doesn't have a bump stock.

01:03What do you need it for?

01:05They're dangerous.

01:06They're incredibly deadly devices that have no place on our streets.

01:11And I'll tell you what, I know firsthand the damage that bump stocks can do.

01:18Because nearly seven years ago, Mr. President, when I was a brand new

01:23senator, had just been elected, in 2017, Las Vegas, my hometown,

01:30my hometown experienced the deadliest mass shooting in American history

01:35because of bump stocks.

01:38On October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire

01:43at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in my hometown of Las Vegas.

01:49He had outfitted his weapons with bump stocks,

01:53allowing him to spray over 1,000 bullets into the crowd of concert goers.

01:58And when I say sprayed, he was in a hotel room, knocked out the window.

02:02And it wasn't just a spray of bullets,

02:04it was raining down bullets on concert goers below.

02:09And it was intentional.

02:11In ten minutes, ten minutes with that bump stock, he murdered 58 people.

02:19867 total people were wounded.

02:23Half of those people, 411, were wounded by gunshots,

02:27including two who later died as a result of their injuries.

02:31Think about that.

02:32Almost 470 people hit by bullets in under ten minutes.

02:38Now, I want you to imagine the terror all those families must have felt.

02:44Unfortunately, I don't have to imagine it, because I experienced it.

02:49My niece was at that concert that night, and

02:51I know exactly where I was when I found out she was there.

02:55I know exactly where I was when I found out she was safe.

02:59And later on that evening, I went to the Family Reunification Center and

03:02sat with those families who were waiting to hear from the coroner who was in

03:07the back room whether their loved one was in that back room.

03:12Now, I am thankful that my niece was not hit by one of those bullets.

03:22But too many were either killed or hit by bullets or

03:24suffered emotional distress because of it.

03:29I will never forget that night.

03:31I will never forget those families.

03:34It's heartbreaking.

03:37You could see their hopelessness in the room at the number of deaths and

03:41injuries being reported on TV as it continued to grow, waiting to hear.

03:46And I have to explain this, because too much happens here in Washington,

03:51D.C., that we just think, this is a number, or this happened in some other community.

03:54When I'm talking raining down bullets on concert goers, think about this.

04:00As I talk to the doctors afterwards in the emergency rooms,

04:03the people that were injured, because it rained down, it came down on their heads.

04:08It came down on their body parts.

04:10It came down in devastating locations for

04:14people who actually survived that event but were wounded.

04:21Our hospitals were overrun.

04:23Nevadans, including me, we stood in line at blood banks for

04:27hours because there was such a need for

04:31blood in the hospitals for so many who had been injured.

04:34And as I've said, I talked to the doctors treating these injuries,

04:41and they described to me the scene that night was like a battlefield, a battlefield.

04:46The blood everywhere, the blood on the floor,

04:48the people that picked up bodies and took them to emergency rooms.

04:53They weren't literally ambulances that were picking these people up.

04:56These were concert goers.

04:57These were people that grabbed people to save them,

04:59put them in their own vehicles, and took them to the closest hospital.

05:03That was what was happening that night because somebody had a bump stock,

05:08because somebody thought it was okay to outfit their guns with bump stocks so

05:12they can kill more people in rapid succession.

05:16Now, understanding this, because this happened October 2017,

05:21we had a new president at the time, President Trump was the president at the time.

05:26Former President Trump directed his administration to ban these bump stocks.

05:32And I tell you, President Trump came out to Las Vegas at that time.

05:35He saw, he heard.

05:38He banned the devices because he said, and I quote,

05:41legal weapons into illegal machine guns.

05:45That's what these bump stocks do.

05:47They turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.

05:53Now, I believe the Supreme Court was wrong to overturn

05:57the Trump administration bump stock ban.

06:01But now that it's been struck down,

06:02it's on Congress to pass legislation to keep our community safe from these

06:07deadly devices.

06:09Now, the reason why we went through ATF, and the Trump administration asked ATF,

06:15because that was the quickest way that we could do it administratively.

06:20The quickest way that we could take action and keep people safe.

06:26Now, in the most recent decision, Justice Samuel Edel said it himself,

06:30in his concurring opinion in this case.

06:33He said it's within Congress's power to make this right.

06:36And I quote, this is from his concurring opinion.

06:38The horrible shooting spree in Las Vegas in 2017 did not change the statutory text

06:42or its meaning.

06:44That event demonstrated that a semiotic rifle with a bump stock

06:47can have the same lethal effect as a machine gun.

06:53But in an event that highlights the need to amend a law does not itself

06:56change the law's meaning.

06:58And Justice Alito went on to say, there is a simple remedy for

07:01the disparate treatment of bump stocks and machine guns.

07:04Congress can amend the law.

07:07And perhaps would have done so if ATF had stuck with its earlier interpretation.

07:14Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act.

07:19So to my colleague from Nebraska, this is not a show vote.

07:23If you were here when I was here back then, we were trying to move as quickly as

07:26possible to get something done to save lives.

07:29First, administratively, we couldn't do it.

07:31According to the court now, I disagree with the court.

07:33This is a machine gun.

07:34But the court now has put it back,

07:36back really in our realm to do something about it.

07:42And I cannot imagine any one of my colleagues standing there saying they

07:45wouldn't want to do the right thing here to continue to save lives.

07:51I don't think they want to turn a blind eye to what happened in Las Vegas.

07:55I don't think they want to turn a blind eye to the 411 people who were shot at

07:58the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

08:00The 60 who were murdered by gunfire and the thousands of families throughout

08:04our country whose lives have been tragically upended because of bump stocks.

08:10If we can't do something as Congress and come together in a bipartisan issue that

08:16not just Nevadans but people in this country understand,

08:19then that is disappointing and irresponsible.

08:24And it's negligent, it's negligent.

08:27So to my Republican colleagues, if you want to do something about this and

08:33you're not happy with the bump stock act that Martin Heinrich just put forward,

08:37which I think addresses all of the issues,

08:39then let's figure out how we get this done because it is our role now to do it.

08:46And we shouldn't stop working to right this wrong.

08:49I will tell you I'm gonna keep pushing this bill to keep our community safe.

08:54I am gonna continue to work with anyone who wants to eradicate bump stocks in

08:58this country once and for all.

08:59And with that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

'Would Save Lives': Catherine Cortez Masto Calls Out Ricketts For Blocking Bill To Ban Bump Stocks

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