[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 111 (Thursday, August 11, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     SAVING THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN

  (Mr. NADLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, today we will be voting on the crime bill 
conference report. I know we are all pleased with some and disappointed 
with other parts of the bill. I declined to sign the conference report 
because of several provisions that I cannot support.
  But our vote on the rule today presents every Member of this House 
with a straightforward, if unappealing, choice: Defeat of the rule will 
result in the elimination of the assault weapons ban. That will be the 
only change defeat of the rule can accomplish. That is what lies in the 
balance.
  I will support the rule when it is considered later today. We have no 
choice. We must save the assault weapons ban. These firearms account 
for only one-half of 1 percent of all guns, but have been used in more 
than 8 percent of all gun crimes--29,058 between 1988 and 1993 
according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
  There are valid objections to this bill, but I cannot in good 
conscience help defeat the rule knowing the sole result would be to 
kill the assault weapons ban. We owe it to our children, to our 
neighbors, to the voters who sent us here to get these weapons of war 
off the streets. I urge my colleagues to vote for the rule and to save 
lives by saving the assault weapons ban.

                          ____________________