[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 194 (Wednesday, December 14, 2022)] [Senate] [Pages S7171-S7172] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Remembering Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I rise as so many of us are talking about today and reflecting upon the massacre in Newtown, CT, Sandy Hook Elementary School, 10 years ago today. I rise for two purposes: One is to commemorate those who lost their lives that day--especially the children, 20 children, as well as 6 adults--to remember each of them today but also to commend and salute the work done by families and so many others across this country to make some measure of progress, limited though it has been, to reduce the likelihood of more gun violence across the country. I wanted to start, though, Madam President, by reading the names and the ages of those who perished on that day at Sandy Hook Elementary School. For each individual, I will read their name and then the age they were on that day. First, Charlotte Bacon, 6 years old; Olivia Engel, 6; Dylan Hockley, 6 years old; Madeleine Hsu, 6; Catherine Hubbard, 6; Jesse Lewis, 6; Ana Marquez-Greene, 6; James Mattioli, 6; Emilie Parker, 6; Jack Pinto, 6 years old; Noah Pozner, 6; Caroline Previdi, 6; Jessica Rekos, 6; Avielle Richman, 6 years old; Benjamin Wheeler, 6; Allison Wyatt, 6; Daniel Barden, 7 years old; Josephine Gay, 7; Chase Kowalski, 7; Grace McDonnell, 7, just age 7. They are the children, and here are the adults who were killed on that day: [[Page S7172]] Victoria Soto, 27 years old; Rachel D'Avino, 29; Lauren Rousseau, 30; Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47 years old; Anne Marie Murphy, 52; and Mary Sherlach, 56 years old. When we remember those children and adults who were killed on that day, unfortunately for the Nation, it didn't stop there. And just as I have read those names, we could continue reading names from other cities and other years under different circumstances but all leading to the same place: death and darkness because of the scourge of gun violence all across America. The children of Newtown, CT, came before the most recent massacre of children in a school in Uvalde, TX. There were many front-page newspaper stories in 2012 on this day--or I guess tomorrow; it would be tomorrow's newspapers--across the country. We had little, small pictures of each child and each adult. I saved one from the Wall Street Journal. It was on my desk for a long time, and then I ultimately had it matted. But I still have one just from May of this year that is still in its newspaper form from Uvalde, TX--the same newspaper, the Wall Street Journal. But you could pick any paper in the country in 2012 or this past year. That tells us all we need to know. So, as we remember and reflect upon that loss, I believe today it is also important to remember and commend what the parents did, what the families did, what their friends and relatives and supporters did, what volunteers did, all these years, who didn't know these families. But let me start with the parents. These parents, of course, were consumed by grief, as anyone would be. But somehow--somehow--although they were consumed by their grief, somehow, by way of their own courage and the grace of God, they figured out a way to come together in common purpose, remembering and trying in their own way to pay tribute to their children, to form organizations which have been highly successful in making the case as to why we have to take action here on the Senate floor and not far away on the House floor, to take action on gun violence. For example, groups like Sandy Hook Promise and Newtown Action Alliance and so many others and related groups that have sprung up got involved in the debate and made the case to legislators personally. Parents burdened by their own grief made the case to legislators. The progress has been all too slow, but because of the courage of the parents of those Sandy Hook children and because of so many other families and parents who have loved and lost, we made some progress just this past year. But, unfortunately, in the last 10 years, it took thousands more mass shootings and hundreds of thousands of gun deaths for Congress to finally act. Let me say that again--hundreds of thousands of gun violence deaths for Congress to finally act. This past summer, we even had Republican Senators join us--not enough but enough to pass a bill in the Senate--to pass a bill that had commonsense gun safety measures in the bill. This bill that passed this summer not only will save lives, but there is some evidence it is already doing that, by some of the data and analysis done by law enforcement. But this bill, if anyone is being honest about it--this bill, this effort, this ongoing effort to reduce gun violence deaths, has to be just the very beginning of our work. People are still being killed and injured by gun violence every day in cities and communities all across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and across the Nation. We owe it to the families of those 20 children and those 6 adults who died in Newtown, CT, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and so many other places that we can name and catalog here today. Because of the length of that list, we don't have time to go through all of them today. We have work to do to make sure that we not only pay tribute to those families who have loved and lost and done so much to help other families, but we owe so much to them in the form of passing legislation. We have to continue to make sure that those who lost their lives on that awful day--a day that most Americans will never forget--we have to make sure that all the efforts that their parents undertook and that their family members undertook will not be in vain. We have more work to do to pass commonsense gun safety measures. My God, a background check supported by 90 percent of the American people has not yet been passed into law, but it will be. We are going to get there here in the Senate and across the country. So we have more work to do, but on this day, as we commemorate and reflect on those young souls we lost, we also have to be positive about what their families have done since that day, showing uncommon courage and dedication to not just the memory of their children but to the betterment of the country as a whole. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll. Mr. SHELBY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The senior Senator from Alabama.