[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 69 (Monday, May 17, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H3056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SUPPORT 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, I would like to remind 
everybody there are only 119 days before the assault weapons ban goes 
back on our streets. As the Million Mom March begins its Halt the 
Assault tour beginning tomorrow, I think it is important to remember 
the support the assault weapons ban has across this country.
  I want to remind people that in California, KSBW television said 
recently, ``We call on the Congress to keep assault weapons where they 
belong, with our military and with our police.'' On the other side of 
the country, the Worcester Telegraph and Herald says, ``Banning assault 
weapons in no way limits individuals' ability to buy, own, or sell 
legitimate sporting firearms.'' In the South, the New Orleans 
editorialized, ``There's no justification for legalizing the 19 
military-style weapons covered by the ban.'' In the Midwest, the 
Springfield Illinois State Journal-Register wrote, ``No reasonable gun 
owner should oppose the Federal assault weapons ban.''
  All across the country, the Nation's leading newspapers are 
reflecting the opinion of the American people. They want the assault 
weapons ban renewed. Strip away the rhetoric and the polls and the 
focus groups, and gun violence is about destroying lives. How many more 
lives will we destroy by putting assault weapons back on our streets?
  Each week, I get up and I say to the American people, you can make a 
difference. Each week, I get up and remind people that we need to have 
the assault weapons ban renewed. September 13 is coming up soon.
  When you start talking to our police officers across the country and 
how involved they are in this issue, people have to remember why we 
passed the assault weapons ban in the first place, because our police 
officers were being mowed down. Assault weapons were used in killings 
in our schools.
  We can stop this, but we need the American people's help. You can 
make a difference. You can make a difference. I have always said one 
person can make a difference, because first it is one, and then two, 
and it multiplies across this Nation. But we need to hear your voices. 
We need to have you contact your Members of Congress, the Members of 
the Senate.
  We need to hear your voices. That is the only way we are going to get 
that bill up here on the House floor. The President has promised to 
sign the bill if it gets on his desk. We have to make sure that the 
bill is passed here through the House. We know we can pass it in the 
Senate and have it put on the President's desk.
  I personally believe it should be made permanent. I also believe that 
copycats of the guns that were used, say in the D.C. sniper shooting, 
which was the Bushmaster, should not be allowed to be copycat. I saw in 
the paper the other day that one of our gun manufacturers just got a 
very large contract for the military so that the people in Iraq, their 
soldiers, will have our guns. So I think we can see where the guns are 
going for war.
  Let me remind people: AK-47s and Uzis, these are the guns you see 
every night on TV; these are the guns we see our young men and women 
use to go fight the war in Iraq. And that is where they belong, in a 
war, not on our streets. They should not be allowed on our streets. 
They should not be allowed in our communities. They certainly should 
not be allowed to be bought and sold by the drug gangs we have 
throughout this country today.
  This is what we need to do. I am asking the American people for help. 
I will do my part here in Washington, but I need your voices across the 
country to make sure we have the bill come up for a vote. That will be 
your job: contact your representatives. Do your part. Do not always 
say, let them do it; you have to get involved in this issue.

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