Senator Cory Booker On The Need For Gun Safety Reforms

I think Mr. Willingham and I could probably appreciate what it's like to live in a community where you hear gunfire. Mr. Willingham, I know you have the feeling like I do when you know young people who have died. I've lost young men that I've mentored, I've watched kids that I've watched grow up, and I'm tired of seeing sidewalk shrines with teddy bears and candles all around my neighborhood. And to Senator Whitehouse's point, it really is the horror of a family losing a child, but the entire community suffers. Chief, I know you know this. In communities like mine, when it's Fourth of July is coming up and I know what will happen when fireworks go off, parents will tell me stories about their kids hiding under beds, calling the police, hiding in closets, and you see what that constant cortisol pumping in the brain does to their development, to their interactions with others. We had a kid bring a gun to school in my city just last week, not because he was seeking to hurt anybody, but because he thought he needed it for protection. I have been championing a bill for a long time, it got included in the Build Back Better program called Break the Cycle of Violence Act, and it's for community violence intervention. I'm hoping it makes it into this bipartisan compromise. Some resources, I really appreciated the testimony of Ms. Swearer, who we should follow the evidence, follow what works. Well, the data from places like Oakland are amazing with how much we can drop violence. And for instance, funding for hospital-based violence intervention programs that provide intensive counseling, peer support, case management, mediation, social services, make a difference. And so I was wondering if you could affirm that. It's not, again, we talk about the guns, which I want to talk about, but we know that for the mental health, for the well-being, for communities that are grappling with this, there are other approaches that show massive reductions in violence. Thank you for that question, Senator Booker. I think that they all have a common thread running through them. Yes, there are evidence-based interventions that have shown tremendous success, and I think the common thread comes out of the science of resilience, where we know that when the brain gets flooded by a hormone called oxytocin, when there's a positive relationship in a child's life or a positive support group, that that activates the relationship or the affiliation network of the brain. And that is as much a real network as the trauma network, if we want to think about it that way. And I think, you know, it gives us great cause for optimism that we have these various interventions that have been proven in science that are probably working through that network and that can really help the child's brain develop in a way that leads them toward becoming the kind of person Mr. Willingham and yourself have become, even though you've grown up in neighborhoods that people may have lowered their expectations for. What fear does to a community, not to mention the economic impact. I remember we had a shooting at an IHOP. They canceled their night shift. People lost jobs. It is a horrific thing that it does to our communities. I think you'd be surprised at how much we probably agree on from policy-wise. I agree with you. You mentioned schools. It's great in my community that parents have high-quality choices from public charter schools to magnet schools to you name it. And I agree with you about focusing on violence. These assault weapons, which I would like to see bans on, they are a very small percentage of the killings. The young man I saw grow up got killed at the top of my block with an assault weapon. The officer told me it was like their head exploded. So I'm concerned about those weapons. But I agree with you about following the policy interventions that are going to yield us the biggest reduction in violence. But there's one question I have to ask, and I'm in agreement with a lot of your testimony. But I don't understand when I hear the arguments from friends of mine, colleagues of mine, that don't think it's the guns, because England has the same mental health problems. I lived there for two years, horrible suicide rates with the kids, Canada as well. But people don't die of gun violence, so it has to be the guns to some point, the easy access to guns. And I agree with you, in my time as mayor of Newark, law-abiding gun owners were not committing the crimes. It was people getting easy access to guns. So to have a picture that paints not a call to do something in this country about the guns seems to be a little incomplete. Would you agree? To an extent, I would agree. It's about doing something about the guns that are actually causing problems in the hands of people who are committing violent offenses. And I think we'd agree, overwhelmingly, it's not about broad measures in the hands of law-abiding citizens, which is why it is important to do things like combat the very large and robust black market for firearms that we have in this country. And I actually do agree, Senator, that there is a lot that you and I do agree on. And it's not that it's not about firearms. I would also point out that we have a pretty significant problem with non-firearm homicide in this country too, which is why it's important to address violence. I've got to be respectful of my colleagues. I'm way over my time. The one thing I'll say is, I look at the data. When Wyoming got rid of their gun licensing, shootings went up 20%, suicides rose. When Connecticut put gun licensing in, the data shows 40% drop in shootings, 15% drops in suicides. And so to me, I want to follow the data and the ease of access to guns. A gun in the house, even a law-abiding citizen, just having a gun in the house, increases the likelihood that their children will commit suicide with it dramatically. And so I'm all for following the data, but we've got to admit that the facts and the data that we have points to a lot of the solutions that are being called for on both sides of the aisle. But it also points to doing something about the ease of access to guns.