[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 22 (Thursday, March 3, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 3, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   EARLY RESULTS SHOW BRADY LAW WORKS

  (Mr. SCHUMER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. Speaker, today is day 3 of the Brady law and the 
early evidence is already in: careful gun control works, and works 
well.
  During the first 48 hours of the new law, convicted criminals and 
mentally unstable people all across the Nation have been denied guns.
  In Utah, 4 felons were refused guns; in Kentucky, 8; in Colorado, 17; 
in Nevada, 6; in Louisiana, 10; in just one city in Texas, 13 were 
turned away; and in Kansas, 5.
  And the list goes on and on across the Nation. Criminals are denied 
access to guns without doing any harm to the law-abiding gun owners.
  In fact the attorney general of Kansas estimated that as many as 10 
percent of those trying to buy guns in Kansas will be caught by the 
Brady law and they won't get a handgun.
  Law enforcement, parents, concerned citzens, and community leaders 
are delighted. We don't know exactly how many lives may be saved, how 
many stores won't be held up, how many kids won't be shot on the way to 
school, how many domestic disputes won't end in blazing gunfire.
  But we do know this: lives will be saved. We know that over 60 people 
who shouldn't have a handgun in just the 7 States I have cited won't 
walk away with a handgun, thanks to the Brady law.
  Mr. Speaker, the irony is that only the NRA thinks this is a bad 
thing.
  Only the NRA will keep pretending that a disastrous assault on the 
constitution is going on here.
  Only the NRA will keep falsely claiming the Brady law won't help in 
the battle against handgun violence.
  Only the NRA will keep denying what everyone else can see.
  The good news, my colleagues, is that the American people will see 
that the NRA has not been telling the truth. Americans will see every 
day in every State that rational gun control works, protects lives, and 
does no harm to the law abiding, whether they own guns or not.

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