[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 27, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RENEW THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, when I was speaking here last 
week, Italian customs officials were stopping a boat that had over 
7,000 AK-47s being shipped here to the United States. We still do not 
know yet what their intended purpose was; but with 30-round clips, it 
could not have been good with AK-47s.
  I have scheduled a meeting with the U.S. Customs officials to discuss 
this troubling shipment. After all, if it is legal to ship in AK-47s, 
when we are now looking on the assault weapons bill to expire on 
September 13, can you imagine the flood of guns that are going to be on 
our streets in a very short while?
  Mr. Speaker, the assault weapons ban expires in 139 days. Today and 
tomorrow police chiefs from all over the country are calling for 
President Bush and Congress to renew the assault weapons ban. In 
Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle and many other 
cities, police chiefs are calling upon us to help them to make sure the 
assault weapons ban stays in place.
  Tomorrow, I will join Members of Congress and the national law 
enforcement leaders in calling on President Bush to keep his promise 
during the 2000 year race that he would sign an assault weapons ban if 
it gets on his desk. Hopefully, the police officers will be able to 
convince the President to get involved in this issue.
  If we cannot bring it up here on the House for a floor vote, it 
cannot get to the President's desk. I would love to see many of my 
colleagues there tomorrow at the press conference. The power of law 
enforcement was what essentially passed the last original bill. There 
is a reason why our law enforcement supports the ban so strongly: 10 
years ago cops were routinely outgunned by criminals in our communities 
with powered assault weapons, but the assault weapons ban made getting 
these guns far more difficult. As a result, our police officers are 
safer today than they were 10 years ago. So are our neighborhoods; so 
are our communities. Why would we want to turn back this progress?

                              {time}  1930

  Can anyone tell me why we need AK-47s, Uzis back on the street? I 
understand the power of the NRA, but anybody with common sense knows 
that we do not use these particular kinds of guns to go hunting. Our 
police officers do not even like using them. Remember, a police officer 
is supposed to stop a criminal, not kill them unless their life is 
under risk.
  If assault weapons are coming back on the street again, obviously our 
police officers are going to be in trouble once again. Please remember, 
when you have assault weapons and if we go back to the old way with the 
amount of clips up to 30, 40, 50, 100, what chance do our police 
officers have? Are we going to have a war right here in the United 
States, citizen against citizen, criminals against our police officers? 
Is that where we want to go? I do not think so.
  I am asking my colleagues to stand up and be counted on this. Since I 
have been here I have worked on gun safety issues. I have never tried 
to take away the right of someone trying to own a gun. Our citizens 
know darn well if they have nothing to fear they can get the permit to 
go hunting. They can get the permit to go buy a gun, but why would you 
go open up the flood gates of assault weapons so our drug lords, our 
criminals and possibly even terrorists that are here in this country to 
be able to buy these guns?
  Common sense. Think about the officers that have died. Think about 
the families they have left behind. Think about our community. Think 
about the school shootings we have had in the past. Do we want to go 
back there? Can we stop every killing? No, we cannot. But why would we 
open again the flood gates of having these kinds of guns back on our 
streets?
  I remind my colleagues, I remind the people across this Nation, the 
guns we are talking about bringing back on these streets are the guns 
we see every single night being used in Iraq, assault weapons, AK-47s, 
Uzis, large capacity clips.
  I beg my colleagues to think about this carefully. The law has 
worked. We should make it permanent and we should make sure that they 
are not allowed on our street.

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