[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 64 (Friday, April 20, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H3699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     WE NEED TO REDUCE THE PROLIFERATION OF FIREARMS IN OUR SOCIETY

  (Mr. MORAN of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I cannot imagine how more tragic 
life could be than to be the parent of a child and be told that their 
father or mother is not going to ever see them again, that he or she 
was killed in Iraq. This is the month of military families where we 
recognize military families, and the best thing we could do is to say 
2,100 children having been given that information is enough, but this 
is also the anniversary of the Columbine massacre.
  At the very time when we are offering our condolences for more than 
30 people being slaughtered at Virginia Tech. While it is certainly 
appropriate to grieve with those parents who thought they were sending 
a child to a nurturing, secure learning environment, only to find that 
their child's life was cut off before they could realize their 
potential, it is even more appropriate that we act and respond to these 
tragedies, to try to prevent them, because we know unless we can reduce 
the proliferation of firearms in our society, that this will continue 
to happen time and time again.
  Our words of condolences after a tragedy will be hollow unless we can 
stand up before the fact to the gun lobby and to those who think that 
we can continue to offer grievances and not change the situation.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to renew the assault weapon ban. We need to end 
the gun show loophole. We need to restrict handgun purchase to no more 
than one per month. We need to stop these tragedies from recurring 
again and again and again.

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