[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 51 (Tuesday, April 16, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2657-S2658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ANTI-GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, on the anti-gun violence legislation before 
the Senate, we are making good progress in the effort to schedule a 
series of votes on amendments.
  I have had constructive conversations with my Republican counterpart, 
Senator McConnell.
  The American people deserve to know where we stand on these important 
antiviolence proposals. There are disagreements as to what we should do 
with gun legislation, if anything, and I understand that. We have 
already spent a week and a half on this legislation, so it is time to 
begin processing these amendments.
  I hope we will be able to reach an agreement earlier rather than 
later--hopefully, sometime by early afternoon--to hold votes on a 
number of amendments, including both Democratic and Republican 
amendments.
  That series of votes would include a number of issues, not the least 
of which is the compromise background check proposal crafted by 
Senators Manchin, Toomey, Kirk, and Schumer. This bipartisan measure 
has the support of antiviolence advocates and law

[[Page S2658]]

enforcement groups as well as second amendment advocates, including the 
second largest gun rights group that exists, consisting of more than 
650,000 members.
  The measure would keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals 
by requiring background checks for private gun sales at gun shows and 
over the Internet.
  Mr. President, whether you are from a pro-gun State such as Vermont 
or Nevada--even in those States, huge amounts, huge numbers of people 
support this legislation. Nationwide, about 90 percent of the people 
support this legislation, including 75 percent of NRA members.
  So I am optimistic and hopeful that cooperation from both sides will 
continue and that victims of gun violence will get the debate and votes 
they deserve, including pro-gun advocates who want votes of their own 
liking.
  So I hope we can move forward. It would be a shame if we got into a 
procedural hassle on all this stuff. We want to debate the issues. And 
as I have indicated to the Republican leader, we are not trying to cut 
off amendments. The ones we agree to start debating, that is not a 
limit as to what we are going to do. I want to have a full, complete 
debate on guns, and we will carry this on just as long as possible.

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