[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 53 (Thursday, May 5, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  ASSAULT WEAPONS HAVE NO PLACE ON OUR STREETS OR WITHIN REACH OF OUR 
                                CHILDREN

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, last month, the House passed sweeping crime 
legislation that is both tough and smart. Final passage of the crime 
bill is critical to ending the wave of violence that plagues our 
streets and so is the legislation we consider today: the assault 
weapons ban.
  This legislation would ban 19 semi-automatic weapons--weapons with 
names like street-sweepers, Uzis and AK-47's. If the names sound 
familiar, it is because these weapons have achieved notoriety as the 
weapons of choice of gang leaders, drug dealers, cop killers and 
terrorists.
  When these rapid-fire weapons fall into the hands of disturbed 
individuals, the results can be horrific. Just last month here in the 
Nation's capital, gang members opened fire on a marketplace, injuring 
several shoppers and killing one teenaged boy.
  In my home State of Connecticut and across the country assault 
weapons are being confiscated with increasing regularity. In 
Bridgeport, the number of assault weapons confiscated by police doubled 
last year. In one case in Wallingford, CT, police responded to a call 
where a 10-year-old boy was critically wounded when a .22 caliber 
pistol he was playing with accidently went off. When police searched 
the scene they also found 37 assault rifles.
  Assault weapons are weapons of war and they have no place on hunting 
trips; they have no place on our streets; and they have no place in our 
homes within the reach of our children.

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