murphy: let me just thank francine for being here and for what her and david have done over the last five years. francine and her husband moved to newtown in 2007 for the good public schools and a yard, where their sons could run around and be safe. sounds familiar to a lot of us as we make decisions on how to order our lives. they remained connected to new york. i feel like i know ben from all the stories from the wheelers. one story i'm fond of, when they would go back to new york am a they would ride the seven train. he was more interested in the subways than the museums or the familiar.that sounds it probably sounds like a lot of our kids and grandkids, and it's a reminder of why we are here today. your testimony today will help us guide the way forward. >> thank you. i will turn out to senator kaine for the next witnesses to give a brief introduction, and then we have three other colleagues as well, and we want to hear from all of the. sen. kaine: thank you. i want to introduce you to two pretty amazing virginia families who have been deeply scarred by gun violence, that have ta

francine and david, and other moms and dads and loved ones who suffered the loss. what impressed me so deeply in the days and weeks and years afterward is the courage and strength in advocating with grace and dignity and incredible courage and strength for common sense measures to stop gun violence. in the fates of that unspeakable loss, they came forward and spoke truth to power truly in these halls in the months afterward, and we came close to steps that would've helped save lives. sandy hook became the first of that pernicious shorthand for other mass slaughters that occurred afterward, orlando, sutherland springs. the list goes on, and now parkland. i want to thank both francine and david and all the sandy hook moms and dads and loved ones for their advocacy. we have no higher rate of mental illness than other modern countries. we have a rate of gun violence that is multiples, off the charts, as senator murphy and i have said repeatedly, and congress has been complicit by its inaction, in effect an acre and a better in those deaths. so dealing with this issue i

and to introduce francine wheeler we have both senator blumenthal and senator murphy to make a comment on introduction. >> i want to thank all of the participants, survivors in today's hearing and my colleagues for giving us this opportunity to hear and listen to some of the story that all of our colleagues have an obligation to heed. francine wheeler is someone i met about five years ago. i wish we had met in a different way for a different reason. just over five years ago, francine and her husband, david, lost their dear son, ben, in an act of unspeakable grief hard roar that we -- horror that we now know in a pernicious kind of short hand as sandy hook, and both my colleague, chris murphy, and i were there that day, and for dave afterward, speaking with francine and david and other moms and dads and loved ones who suffered that loss. what impressed me so deeply in the days and weeks and years afterward is their courage and strength in advocating with grace and dignity and incredible courage and strength. for common sense measures to stop gun violence. in the face of that unspeakable