[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 15, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H4230-H4231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         REPUBLICANS PUT NRA-BACKED POLITICS ABOVE OUR CHILDREN

  (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, Republicans need to decide who is more 
important to them, our children or their politics. Because if they want 
to play politics with the issue of gun safety, they should explain why 
to the parents of Sean Harvey of West Paterson

[[Page H4231]]

in my home State of New Jersey. Sean did not live to see his 17th 
birthday because he was shot by a man who mistakenly thought he was 
stealing a neighbor's car. Well, the car belonged to a friend of 
Sean's, and the gun used to kill him was unlicensed by a man with a 
list of prior offenses.
  This Congress has a responsibility to get these guns off the street 
and to make sure that everyone who buys a gun is subject to a 
background check. When it comes to keeping our children safe in their 
schools and in our neighborhoods, there should be no loopholes and no 
exceptions.
  There is nothing more important than the safety of our children, and 
it is a sad day in this House and this Nation when the Republican 
leadership gives the NRA all of the time necessary before the Memorial 
Day break to be able to work over Members and to create a process that 
is destined to failure, destined to fail our children in terms of 
safety, destined to fail the citizens of this country in terms of 
safety and destined to ensure the NRA's victory.

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