Watch the full speech HERE.
October 2, 2025 - WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) delivered a floor speech to 
mark the 1 October shooting in Las Vegas. In her speech, Senator Rosen honored the 60 lives lost as a result of the tragedy and highlighted how Nevada was forever changed by this senseless act of gun violence, the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Senator Rosen also recognized the heroism of Las Vegas’s first responders and urged Congress to help prevent gun violence by passing her bipartisan bill to ban bump stocks.
Below is a transcript of Senator Rosen’s remarks:
For the residents of Southern Nevada and so many others, October 1st is no ordinary day. On October 1st, 2017 my hometown of Las Vegas was struck by an unimaginable tragedy that forever changed our communities.
We experienced an attack on a scale far worse than anyone could have ever imagined. A devastating tragedy that ripped families apart and destroyed lives.
You know, during any given weekend, the Las Vegas Strip is buzzing with tourists and visitors from around the world, and that was the case on October 1st, 2017.
That night, tens of thousands of people came to Las Vegas to attend the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival and enjoy a fun night with friends and good music, and the weather was beautiful.
But in just ten minutes, their lives – and our entire state – would be changed forever.
Ten minutes, ten minutes is all it took for a gunman to open fire on an unsuspecting crowd, killing 58 innocent people, injuring thousands, and leaving a permanent scar on the hearts of everyone in our state and the hearts of the family and friend of everyone injured or killed.
In the years since, we’ve lost two more individuals as a result of this tragedy, which remains the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
So I want you to think about what that means.
The families of the victims of that tragedy had their worlds shattered in just ten minutes that day, ten minutes that day to change their lives forever.
Families who now don’t get to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, holidays. Families who never got to say goodbye to their loved ones.
I think this is one of the hardest things, they never got to say goodbye to the people that they loved.
That night also changed the lives of everyone in our city.
People who were attending or working at the festival. Nevadans who were just driving down the strip, and the first responders who ran toward danger to help save lives.
In the chaos and confusion of that night, our heroic first responders, our police officers, our firefighters, our paramedics ran towards the scene, they saved countless lives.
I know taxi drivers, everyone ran to try and help people escape..
In the midst of this darkness, we saw our community go above and beyond to help others.
Our entire state rallied together. We saw lines of people around entire blocks waiting hours to donate blood, willing to donate blood to save the lives of complete strangers in the middle of a mass casualty.
I remember that day going to the line to talk to people, trying to comfort folks in the midst of those first few days. And there was a woman in line to give blood and I went up to talk to her and she put her arms out like this and said I don’t have much, but blood, blood is all I have to give.
She started crying, I started crying, it was such a moving moment. She goes this is what I can give, arms outstretched.
I want everyone to think about that. The hearts of so many in a tragedy go out to those they don’t even know to do what they can and give what they can. Coming straight from the heart.
And these selfless acts, not just this woman, this was one of so many that I was proud to hear and be part of, showed the country why we’re Vegas strong.
I’m here today to honor the memories of those who we’ve lost as a result of that terrible night on 1 October and everyone else who was impacted.
As we remember and reflect on this event, we must also commit ourselves to action to make sure no other community in the nation goes through what we went through.
In the last few years, we’ve seen shootings at universities including UNLV in Las Vegas in schools, in places where people go every day, like supermarkets and churches. Mr. President, we saw that this week.
Just this year alone, there have already been 53 school shootings in the United States.
So it’s clear we need to act, and there are things we can do on a bipartisan basis.
The 1 October shooter relied on bump stocks, which are dangerous devices that attach to guns to make them fire bullets faster, so that a shooter can fire more bullets in a short period of time, in order to inflict as much pain and carnage as possible. And I hope we could agree that nobody wants that. No one should want that.
And in response to this unprecedented tragedy in 2017, President Trump issued a federal rule banning bump stocks, and it did help save countless lives from these deadly modifications.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court overturned this common-sense federal ban, allowing these dangerous bump stocks to flow into our streets once again.
And so this puts more lives and communities at risk, which is why I helped introduce bipartisan legislation earlier this year to restore this common-sense federal ban on bump stocks.
Because we have the power to do something. Let’s pass this bipartisan bill and save lives before the next tragedy hits another unsuspecting community.
Because trust me, nobody wants to go through this, no community, nobody wants to give this speech, nobody wants to look in the eyes of the families, nobody wants to go to that reunification center, nobody wants to go to the hospitals, nobody wants to go and see the memorials grow time after time, no one wants to see this in community after community every single day.
There has to be some common sense in what we can do.
As we approach the eighth anniversary of the 1 October shooting, I ask all of my colleagues in this chamber to remember and honor the memories of the victims and everyone whose lives were forever changed that night.
I also ask that we come together, Republicans and Democrats, in a bipartisan way to save lives by passing our common-sense bill to ban bump stocks.
I think it would make a difference, and I just pray that those out there watching find comfort in remembering that their loved one’s memory serves as a blessing to them, and we will always continue to honor them.
Thank you.
Source: Senator Jacky Rosen
Senator Cortez Masto Commemorates 8th Anniversary of the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas
October 2, 2025 - Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) spoke on the Senate floor on Wednesday to commemorate eight years since the Route 91 Harvest Festival massacre in Las Vegas.
Below are her remarks as prepared for delivery:
M. President, I rise today to mark the eighth anniversary of the worst mass shooting in modern American history.
And today, as I give this speech, far too many Americans across the country are reeling from the pain of shootings in their own communities.
This country is seeing a horrifying increase in mass violence that doesn’t just destroy the lives of the victims; it tears apart families, it leaves loved ones with an unfillable hole in their hearts, and it brings communities to the breaking point.
I’ve seen it firsthand.
Eight years ago today, a man gunned down 58 people at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 800 people were wounded in the chaos, and two people later succumbed to their injuries.
That day and those that followed were some of the worst of my life. My niece was attending the festival, and I remember the overwhelming relief I felt to learn she was safe and okay.
But I also remember spending time at the Reunification Center with the families of missing festival attendees, praying with those families, crying with those families, watching them as they hoped their loved ones would return to them.
Some were lucky. Many were not.
Our city – our entire state – felt lost. But out of this horror came something miraculous.
In the aftermath of 1 October, Nevadans came together to support each other. People came out in droves to give blood; to donate money, food, and clothing; and to lend a helping hand to those who had lost so much.
Businesses, community organizations, and law enforcement did what they could to ease the burden on the families who had been impacted. I worked across the aisle with my Republican partner in the Senate at the time, Dean Heller, to get financial relief for the victims.
Our city united in the face of this tragedy, and we came out of it Vegas Strong. I am forever touched by those incredible efforts to shine a light in the darkness.
But even all that good cannot erase the scars left behind by this massacre.
Its victims were innocent people who went to a music festival to enjoy themselves. It didn’t matter what they did for work or what they believed or who they loved – they were gunned down indiscriminately.
In the eight years since this tragedy that shook my state to its core, we’ve sadly seen more violence erupting across the country. In places of worship, in schools, and in grocery stores.
As Americans, as Members of Congress, we have to continue speaking out against it. Violence is never the answer. We cannot survive in a country where this is the norm.
We have to be better.
For me, that means coming together to work on common sense solutions like finally banning bump stocks nationwide, passing comprehensive background checks to make sure criminals can’t exploit loopholes to buy deadly weapons, and delivering more support for mental health in this country.
And it also means always remembering the victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival massacre. Grieving the lives they never got to live, and the families they never got to come home to or create, serves as a stark reminder of the horrors violence like this can cause. We owe it to them and to their loved ones to keep working together to end it.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, Las Vegas has rebuilt. We have risen from the ashes stronger than ever. But we will never forget the trauma inflicted on us that day.
That pain must fuel us to work together toward a better future for our children, for our families, and for our country.
Source: Senator Catherine Cortez Masto
