Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks As Senate Republicans Block A Federal Ban On Bump Stocks

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Senate Democrats’ attempted to pass the BUMP Act – Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) objected. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

I am proud to come to the floor today, to stand with my good friend and a great leader on this issue, Senator Martin Heinrich, on a matter of life and death.

A few days ago, the MAGA Supreme Court struck once again, reversing a ban on dangerous bump stocks like the one used in the Las Vegas shooting, the deadliest mass shooting ever committed by one person.

Today, the Senate must step into the breach and pass a federal ban on bump stocks, which Senator Heinrich has championed. I urge Republicans not to block this commonsense safety measure.

Banning bump stocks should be the work of five minutes. It’s an idea that even some conservative senators have claimed to support in the past. One conservative colleague of mine, on the Republican side, said a while ago that if a bump stock ban “actually gets on the Senate floor, I’d vote for it.” The Senior Senator from South Carolina also said “I think doing away with bump stocks. That’s achievable.” And “I’m willing to get rid of that.” Some Republicans even supported Donald Trump when he, hardly a friend of gun safety, banned bump stocks after the Las Vegas shooting.

If banning bump stocks was good enough for Republicans in the past, it should be good enough for them today. But if Republicans block this bill today, after claiming to support bump stock bans in years past, a ban even President Trump supported when he was president, shame on them. They’d be siding with the gun lobby over families exasperated by gun violence.

It's amazing to me that the MAGA Supreme Court even went to the right of Donald Trump on this issue, surprising, appalling, very, very hard to swallow that they would have this kind of reasoning.

If Republicans now believe a ban on bump stocks is simply too much, they should explain their change of heart to the families in Nevada who lost loved ones.

If Republicans block this bill today after claiming to support bump stock bans in years past, shame on them.  Republicans should explain to parents and teachers and students why they’d rather make it easier for murderers to access dangerous weapons, instead of making it harder. It’s not enough for Republicans to roll their eyes and dismiss this bump stock vote as a show vote. Tell that to the families who have lost loved ones.

I urge Republicans not to object. Americans are sick of gun violence, and they’re especially sick of lawmakers who obey the gun lobby and kill any effort to make our communities safer. And I want to thank my friend and a great leader in the Senate, Martin Heinrich. On this and so many issues, whether it's conservation or environment or protecting the rights of people or just helping New Mexico in every way as he's now valiantly helping them with the fires now ravaging in his state, the Senator from New Mexico is one of our great leaders here and I'm so proud to yield to him to make the unanimous consent request.

###