[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 86 (Thursday, June 17, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H4475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         GOP: GUNS OVER PEOPLE

  (Mr. GUTIERREZ asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Madam Speaker, a few weeks ago House Republicans said 
they believed that the United States should not take a leadership role 
in the world; a war in Europe was someone else's problem, they said. 
But this week, the GOP says the United States should be the leader of 
the world. The United States, according to House Republicans, must 
retain its title as world leader: in murders, assaults and other 
incidents of gun violence.
  I used to think that the Republicans' isolationism simply meant that 
they closed their eyes to the rest of the world's problems. Now I see 
that they have closed their eyes to the rest of the world's solutions. 
The solution to gun violence and crime in every other industrialized 
nation has been fewer guns; more gun safety laws. It has proven it 
works.
  Sometimes it is hard to figure out what the Members of the GOP stand 
for. They want us to stand alone in the world, too proud to take a 
lesson from other countries. They do not want us to stand up for 
freedom or stand up to an evil aggressor, but at least it is clear what 
the letters GOP stand for: Guns over people.

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