[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 9, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H2658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H2658]]
                MOTHER'S DAY AND GUN SAFETY RECOGNITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, one of the most cherished 
holidays is pending this week, when so many families will gather to 
honor mothers, those that live and those who have gone on. This is a 
special time to recognize the value of an important component of our 
family.
  Many mothers will take this opportunity this week to show their 
complete horror and great concern for the number of children that we 
have lost to gun violence. They will take this challenge and take this 
cause not in a political manner but in a manner of compassion and 
belief. We expect millions of mothers to come to Washington, D.C. to 
express to the world, not only this Nation, that America is, indeed, a 
civilized country that values life and recognizes that it does not have 
to have this macho holding of guns to be able to show itself a Nation 
of dignity and laws and humanity.
  I would hope that Americans will take a moment as they honor mothers 
to reflect upon the importance of this message; that Americans will 
also put aside politics and ask themselves the same question: Do we 
need to arm ourselves with the numbers of guns that we have so that the 
guns in America now almost outnumber the population?
  Even though we would imagine and hope that our children go to schools 
that are safe, we pray every day that that is the case, and I applaud 
the Nation's school districts, urban and rural alike, in their efforts 
that they have made to be safe and to have our children safe, there is 
no refusing to acknowledge that the world knows America through the 
eyes of Jonesboro, and Pennsylvania and Columbine, and it knows this 
Nation of laws and of dignity and of respect for the Constitution as a 
somewhat violent Nation.
  It seems appalling that we cannot listen to the majority of Americans 
who are willing to accept reasonable gun safety laws, such as the 
legislation that many of us have put forward, in particular I have put 
forward legislation, that asks for adults to be held responsible if 
guns get in the hands of children; to support trigger locks; to, in 
fact, provide a nationwide educational effort that reasonably stays 
away from politics and begins to tell children about the dangers of 
guns.
  But lo and behold, here we go again, to take a moment when mothers 
are coming forward as mothers, organized by mothers and organized by 
respective communities, using the resources of their own, not being 
propelled by any emotion other than there is too much bloodshed with 
respect to our children, because more of our children die from homicide 
and die from guns than any other civilized nation or any other nation, 
yet the National Rifle Association takes this week, I guess this is 
their counterproposal, to promote advertisement to suggest that they 
are prepared to give $1 million to provide for gun safety in America's 
schools or to deal with America's children.
  Really, what I say to the National Rifle Association and Charlton 
Heston, and all of those who would propose that they are sincere, is to 
join the mothers in their march; stand up and actually be seen not as 
antagonists but a sincere person who believes in gun safety, not the 
hypocrisy and the outrage of putting on advertisements and to suggest 
that they have one iota of the slightest concern about passing real gun 
safety legislation.
  For if they did, then they would see the ridiculousness of the gun 
show loopholes; that anyone, no matter what their background, can walk 
into the thousands of gun shows unrestricted across America and buy 
guns. They would understand that that does not violate the second 
amendment if we simply ask that there be regulations and restrictions 
on those purchases. It does not interfere with law-abiding citizens who 
buy guns, it does not interfere with sports enthusiasts, gun 
collectors, no one who is seriously interested in abiding by the law 
and holding their guns safely in their homes. And, yes, it does not 
prohibit anyone from protecting themselves against that intruder, 
although the statistics show that most gun violence in homes is family 
to family because the guns are there.
  So we are quick to be able to prosecute an 11-year-old boy that 
tragically shot another human being, but we do not look to the systemic 
problem of that little boy's condition and the exposure to guns. And we 
are appalled when a 6-year-old shoots a 6-year-old, but we do not 
address the question of the systemic problem of guns in America.
  So I applaud the mothers and will be supporting them as a mother 
myself, and I hope that we will mourn over no more lost and dying 
babies and children because of guns. And to the National Rifle 
Association I say, take the ads off and stand up and be counted for 
something that is real; real gun safety, real support for the stopping 
of the killing of our babies.

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