[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 5 (Friday, January 8, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GUN CONTROL EXECUTIVE ORDERS
(Mr. CARTER of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the
House for 1 minute.)
Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of every
American's Second Amendment rights.
The recent announcement by President Obama to unilaterally enact gun
control laws once again shows his complete lack of leadership and a
complete disregard for Americans' fundamental rights. The President
should be working with Congress to enact legislation, not creating
executive orders because things don't work out his way.
The fact is that the President's executive actions would not have
prevented a single mass shooting over the past several years. One of
the main underlying causes of many of these shootings was mental
illness, and I will be the first to agree that we should dedicate
efforts to address mental illness in this country.
However, directing millions of dollars in new investment for mental
health care is not the role of the President. That is the role for
Congress.
If our Founding Fathers wanted to restrict the right to bear arms,
they would have written it into our Constitution. If our Founding
Fathers wanted an executive fiat government, they would have created
one.
I call on my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to stand up
for this institution and protect what our Founding Fathers fought and
died for: a Republic elected by the people, for the people; a country
that is not controlled by one man, but by many.
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