[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 9, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S6781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this morning's headline says it all: 
``House GOP Backs NRA's Gun Show Bill.''
  Many of us in the Senate worry that the good work done in this 
Chamber will be undone in the House. It is hard to believe that the 
House leadership is deaf to the pleas of the families who want 
Washington to quit playing patty-cake with the gun lobby and pass a 
real bill that closes the gun show loophole.
  The measure we passed in the Senate was modest--far too modest for 
many people's taste. But we said, let us limit it so it does not hurt 
the legitimate gun owner but at the same time will close loopholes that 
allow kids and criminals to get guns.
  Now in the House, because the NRA is actually in the back room, pen 
in hand, drafting legislation, we fear that that legislation will be a 
sham. Anything less than an airtight Brady background check at gun 
shows is a sham. Redefining what a gun show is and making many gun 
shows exempt from the law, in effect, to not allow the FBI to make 
background checks in the time they need so that criminals cannot get 
guns, is all happening right now in the House.
  The only thing I can say to my former colleagues in the House, still 
my friends, is this: You will not get away with it. When some in this 
Chamber tried to change the rules, to make it seem as if they were 
doing something, but winking at the NRA, they were thwarted. The same 
thing will happen in the House.
  There has been a sea change in the views of the American people. Do 
the American people want to repeal the second amendment or confiscate 
hunting rifles? No way. But do they believe modest measures that will 
move us along and prevent kids and criminals from getting guns are in 
order, no matter what the NRA says? You bet.
  I urge the House leadership to come clean, to step forward, to pass 
the same legislation we passed in the Senate on gun shows without any 
loopholes, and allow the families in Littleton and the American people 
to breathe one large sigh of relief that we finally have begun to make 
progress in preventing kids and criminals from getting guns.
  I yield the floor and thank my colleagues.

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