[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 10, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GUN SHOWS

  (Mr. BLAGOJEVICH asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BLAGOJEVICH. Mr. Speaker, there is no evidence that Timothy 
McVeigh and cult leader David Koresh ever actually met. But if they 
had, it is a good bet it might have been at a gun show.
  McVeigh financed some of his terrorist activities by selling at gun 
shows firearms he stole from an Arkansas gun collector. It was at gun 
shows that Koresh purchased many of the weapons he later stockpiled at 
his Branch Dividian compound.
  The Brady bill has stopped over a quarter of a million handgun sales 
to criminals, but there is a gaping loophole. Background checks are not 
required at gun shows. Last year there were nearly 5,000 gun shows in 
America where anyone can buy as many firearms as they want with no 
questions asked. That is how a criminal in Florida with 16 felony 
convictions purchased firearms and killed four people in a one-day 
shooting spree.
  Last weekend in his national radio address, President Clinton 
announced a report confirming that gun shows are becoming a buyer's 
mecca for criminals, with over 56,000 illegal firearms transfers.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to act. There should not be a 
place anywhere in America where criminals can buy guns with no 
questions asked.

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