[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 82 (Thursday, June 10, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H4029]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  AMERICANS WANT REAL PROBLEMS ATTACKED IN CONGRESS, NOT BOGUS ISSUES

  (Mr. BARR of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARR of Georgia. Madam Speaker, we can hear it already. It is, 
bash the special interest groups, bash the grass-roots organizations 
out there, and avoid the real issue.
  Unfortunately for the other side, and fortunately for real America 
out there, the American people know otherwise. The other side, in 
support of their gun control antics, frequently throw poll numbers 
around. Well, they do not tell, as usual, the rest of the story.
  For example, the CNN-USA Today poll recently found that only 4 
percent of Americans believe that guns were to blame for the tragic 
shooting at Columbine High School. By contrast, that same poll found, 
and these folks over here will never tell us that, that nearly 60 
percent of the American people put the blame on family breakdown, 
mental problems, and lack of morals, not on guns.
  That is what we ought to be addressing. That is what we are not 
addressing.
  Big-city mayors are in there with them. They are saying, let us go 
after firearms manufacturers and put thousands of people out of jobs. 
That will solve the problems in our society. Wrong again. And the 
American people know it is wrong. They will not support that sort of 
big government, big litigation.
  What they support are the honest proposals that will be before this 
House, hopefully will be before this House, to attack the real 
problems, not the bogus issues that we just heard from the other side.

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