[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 104 (Tuesday, September 7, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H6733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN MUST NOT EXPIRE

  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, over 200 days ago I started 
speaking about September 13. That is the day when the assault weapons 
ban that we have in place now is going to expire.
  Over the last couple of years, and then even this week when we saw 
the tragedy that happened in Russia, we saw what terrorists could do 
when they put their minds to having destruction. They do not care about 
human life. We are told that we have terrorists here in this country 
waiting to do their destruction on us as American citizens. We are told 
that when they can, they will do as much destruction as possible.
  Come September 13, at midnight, your local terrorists, the gangs that 
are in our streets, the drug dealers, will be able to buy assault 
weapons at your local gun store.
  I do not understand this. We hear the rhetoric all the time that the 
assault weapons bill has not worked. Well, you talk to the police 
officers that are coming down here tomorrow to try to convince the 
President to expand the bill. We have seen a 60 percent drop in 
killings with the guns that have been banned.

                              {time}  2015

  Our local police say they are not prepared for this. The bulletproof 
vests that we give our police officers are no match to the guns that 
are going to be back out on the streets. The large-capacity clips, 
right now we hold it at 15, 10, and yet in our States when our hunters 
go out shooting for deer or hunting, they are only allowed 6 bullets. 
But we are going to give people anywhere like the killer today in Ohio 
that used 50 rounds. Where is the common sense?
  We have the majority of the American people wanting to keep this ban 
in place. We have 56 percent of gun owners, NRA members that say, keep 
the ban in place. Yet there is total silence here in this House. The 
bill is not going to be allowed to be brought up even for a vote. But 
by the way, on Monday there will be a suspension vote to allow guns 
back into the D.C. area and not to punish anyone that is carrying an 
unlicensed gun.
  Is this where we as Americans want to be? The rhetoric that we hear 
constantly, as if this is a slippery road, we are out to take away 
everyone's right to own a gun. Well, that is not the slippery road. We 
are trying to save lives.
  Ten years ago we put this bill in place because too many of our 
police officers were being killed and outgunned. Come Tuesday morning 
of next week, September 14, when our kids are going back to school, our 
police officers are going to be in harm's way once again. The President 
of the United States has said that he would sign the bill if it got on 
his desk. Well, you cannot have it two ways, Mr. President. You have to 
make the phone call here. You have to tell Dennis Hastert, we want the 
bill up here. And like your father before you, make phone calls to say, 
get this bill passed, as Ronald Reagan did, as President Carter did, 
and as President Clinton did.
  We cannot save every life. There is no bill in the world that is 
going to be able to do that. But when we have something in place that 
has saved lives, why would we just let it go? The NRA, are they that 
strong? Where are the voices of the American people? Where is this 
House, and where is this President? Whose side are they going to be on? 
The police officers that we talk about that are so heroic from 9/11 and 
through the convention and through all of the terrorist threats that we 
have, where are the voices that are going to protect those police 
officers? We are just going to let it go? Who is going to face the 
families? Who is going to talk to the surviving families when the first 
police officer is mowed down? Who is going to do that? It always seems 
that I am the one who has to talk to the victims' families.
  We have several days left. We have all of the police and the police 
chiefs coming in tomorrow. Mr. President, I am begging you, get on the 
phone. Make this happen. We can pass it in the Senate, and we can pass 
it here in the House, but we need your help. Mr. President, I am 
begging of you. You talk about our police officers. How about 
protecting them now?

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