Congressional Record, Volume 162 Issue 99 (Tuesday, June 21, 2016)

[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 21, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4043-H4047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TIME TO ACT ON GUN VIOLENCE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about
an issue that is very alarming to many people across the country, an
issue that saddens everyone, and an issue that, sadly, isn't being
addressed by this Congress.
Last week, we lost 49 innocent lives in the worst mass shooting that
our country has ever seen. Sadly, it is not an insulated case. Let me
give you some numbers:
In the 3 years since the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary
School, there have been over 1,100 mass shootings. More than 34,000
lives have been cut short by someone using a gun. The House of
Representatives has held 30 moments of silence for the victims of mass
shootings since Sandy Hook, and yet we haven't taken a single vote on
legislation that would help keep guns out of dangerous hands.
Mr. Speaker, I think that is shameful. The American people deserve
more than silence. The American people deserve a Congress that is
willing to stand up and do whatever it takes to keep our communities
safe. That starts by making sure that terrorists, criminal domestic
abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill don't have easy access to
purchase guns in our country.
Today, suspected terrorists can legally buy guns in our country.
Individuals who are on the FBI's terrorist watch list can walk into a
gun store, pass a background check, and walk out with a gun or the guns
of their choosing--and they can do it legally.
Since 2004, more than 2,000 suspected terrorists were able to
purchase guns. More than 90 percent of all suspected terrorists who
tried to purchase guns in the last 11 years walked away with the weapon
that they went in to buy.
Now, in the wake of the horrific attacks in Orlando, Congress must
make it a priority to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of suspected
terrorists. There is bipartisan legislation that would prohibit those
on the terrorist watch list from being able to purchase firearms in our
country. This bill is common sense. If you are too dangerous to fly,
you are too dangerous to buy a gun.
It is long past time for the Republican leadership to bring that bill
up for a vote. We also need to pass my bipartisan bill to require
background checks for all commercial gun sales.
Background checks are our first line of defense when it comes to
stopping dangerous people from getting firearms. We know that
background checks work. Every day, they stop more than 170 felons, some
50 domestic abusers, and nearly 20 fugitives from buying a gun.
Unfortunately, in 34 States, criminals, domestic abusers, and the
dangerously mentally ill can bypass a background check by purchasing
guns online or at a gun show. This is a dangerous loophole that needs
to be closed.
Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked consideration of no fly, no buy
legislation and a measure to strengthen and enhance background checks.
Now the Republican House is going on with business as usual, without
giving the American people a vote to help prevent gun violence in our
country.
If the Republican leadership agrees that suspected terrorists,
criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill shouldn't
be able to buy guns, they should give us a vote.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. Esty), the Member
who represents Sandy Hook, where the Newtown tragedy took place.
Ms. ESTY. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to call on the U.S. Congress to
call on this body, the United States House of Representatives, to do
its job: to vote this week to keep guns out of the hands of would-be
terrorists and to ensure that all commercial sales of weapons go
through a background check.
Since the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in my
district in 2012, more than 100,000 Americans have lost their lives to
gun violence.
Think about that. Think about a town in your district. Think about
where your mother lives. I think about my hometown of Cheshire, with
30,000 people. Three Cheshires lost. Every single person--children,
parents, teachers, grandparents--lost to gun violence. And this House
does nothing.
In the 3\1/2\ years that I have been here, we have not been allowed
one single, solitary vote to take commonsense, bipartisan steps to help
prevent gun deaths in this country.
Congress' silence, our failure to act in this House, and the refusal
of the leadership in this House time again to allow a vote is wrong, it
is shameful, and it must stop.
Since my colleagues', Senator Murphy and Senator Blumenthal,
historic, nearly 15-hour filibuster last week, Americans from all walks
of life have risen up to say, ``Enough.''

{time} 2000

Enough sons and daughters lost, enough families torn apart, enough of

[[Page H4044]]

absurd loopholes that make it easier for people on the FBI's terrorist
watch list to buy guns than it is for your 16-year old to get a
driver's license.
Reforms to stop terrorists from purchasing guns and extended
background checks to all commercial sales are commonsense, bipartisan
solutions to help prevent gun violence and to save lives. Outside of
Washington, these ideas aren't the least bit controversial. In fact,
they are simply common sense.
The American people get it. The overwhelming majority of Americans
support the no fly, no buy rule that would allow us to close this
absurd loophole that someone on the terrorist watch list can go in and
legally purchase a gun anywhere in America, and to have background
checks on each and every commercial sale.
Yesterday, on Monday, a majority of Senators decided to protect the
interests of the gun lobby, rather than protecting the American people.
Now is the time for this House to lead. The House has remained silent
for too long, for far too many acts of gun violence that have claimed
the lives of tens of thousands of Americans.
It is unthinkable, unconscionable that this House would look to
recess to celebrate the 4th of July, the freedom day, our Independence
Day in this country, when we have yet to hold a single, solitary vote
since Sandy Hook, when 100,000 Americans have died from gunshot wounds
in 3\1/2\ years.
We must take up action. We must act this week. It is time for
Congress to vote. It is time for Congress to act.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the gentlewoman for the
compassion that she brings to this debate, and it is understandable.
Having met with and spoken with many of the parents who lost their
children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, to talk to them, and to have
to tell them that yet another year has passed and the leadership in
this Congress has refused, has refused to hold one single vote on any
measure relating to gun violence, is just despicable and very, very
sad.
I know that the gentlewoman from Connecticut goes home every weekend
and talks with those parents and those community members who were
shaken to their core to get that call that there was a shooting at an
elementary school, and that their child was involved, and had to come
down to that school and learn that their child was taken from them. It
is unacceptable that we allow this to continue.
When Sandy Hook took place, I was asked by the minority leadership to
chair a task force on gun violence prevention, and I took that on. I
took it on for a couple of reasons: One, I know it had to be done; and
two, I bring a unique perspective to this debate.
I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. I am a gun owner. I
am a hunter. I have vast experiences with firearms, including carrying
a military-type assault weapon for the tour that I served in Vietnam. I
consider myself a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, and would
do nothing to take an individual's Second Amendment right away from
them. As I say, I support it strongly.
I also believe that, as a responsible gun owner, I, and all of my
fellow responsible gun owners, have a responsibility to answer this
call, to figure out how we can put on the books laws that--while
protecting the Second Amendment, while protecting an individual's
rights to own firearms and use firearms for target practicing,
collecting, hunting, or self-defense, we have a responsibility to make
sure we keep firearms out of the hands of people who shouldn't have
firearms.
Criminals and the dangerously mentally ill should not be able to have
firearms. They shouldn't be able to buy them, they shouldn't be able to
own them, they shouldn't be able to use them. And surely this Congress
can come together and figure out a way to make certain that this
doesn't happen, to the best that we possibly can.
Now I will be the first to admit there is no bill in the world that
we can pass that will solve every issue related to gun violence. But
doggone it, we should try. We owe it to our constituents. We owe it to
those who lost loved ones through gun violence, and we owe it to the
responsible, law-abiding gun owners of this country to try.
Now I thought we had the makings of a good proposal when I sat down
with my colleague and my friend from New York, Republican Peter King,
and we put together the legislation, commonly referred to as ``the
King-Thompson Bill,'' to require that anyone who purchases a firearm
through a commercial sale would be required to go through a background
check.
You wouldn't think it would be necessary. You wouldn't think that
anybody would want to sell a firearm to someone who may possibly be a
danger to their community or to our society. But the fact of the matter
is that there are people who sell firearms willy-nilly to anybody with
the cash to buy them. And we need to step in and make sure that we stop
willy-nilly from selling these firearms to criminals and the
dangerously mentally ill, and that is what the King-Thompson bill does.
It says that if you buy a firearm through a commercial sale, you have
to have a background check.
Now anybody who buys a firearm in any of our 50 States through a
licensed commercial dealer has to go through a background check. That
is the floor. That is the minimum Federal law. Some States, however,
don't go any further than that, which leaves this big loophole. It
exempts individual sales, and some of those individual sales are
commercial.
When you set up a table at a gun show and sell firearm after firearm
after firearm, or when you go online and you list your firearms for
sale as an individual, people can call and say: I want to buy that gun.
No background check needed because you are buying it from an
individual. You can meet down in the parking lot of your local whatever
store and you can make that transaction.
That needs to be stopped. Thirty-four States don't do anything about
that. The King-Thompson legislation would do something about that. It
would say that you have to first get a background check.
Now it is a bipartisan bill. As a matter of fact, there are 186
Members of this Congress who are coauthors of that bill. Five of them
are Republicans.
Ninety percent of the American people believe that you should have
background checks for commercial sale of firearms. Eighty-five percent
of NRA members believe you should have background checks for firearms.
They know that this is the first line of defense.
Again, it won't stop everything, but it does work. 170 felons a day,
through the existing background check system, are stopped from buying
firearms. We know it works.
Sadly, about 40 percent of all firearm purchases are done outside of
federally licensed commercial sites, so 40 percent of the people who
are buying guns today are able to avoid a background check. That is
wrong. We ought to close that.
When we started the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, we met with
everybody. I conducted the meetings. I conducted the hearings. We met
with gun owner groups, we met with gun dealers, people who sell
firearms, we met with gun experts, we met with people who are opposed
to guns and people who are for guns. We heard from police, sheriffs,
the Federal agency that deals with gun laws. We heard ad nauseam. We
heard from the NRA. We brought everybody in, all the outside gun
groups, to tell us what we needed to do. And without question, we came
away from that with the understanding that background checks is the
number one thing that we can do if we want to make a dent in this gun
violence problem that we have. And we should have a vote on that bill.

Now, we know that it works. I told you that, but don't take my word
for it. Look at the facts.
When Connecticut passed what they call their Permit to Purchase,
which is a background check legislation, their State saw a 40 percent
drop in homicides by firearms; 40 percent drop.
Now, conversely, at the same time, Missouri repealed Permit to
Purchase, which led to a 25 percent increase in homicide by firearms.
Those numbers alone tell us that we need to do something. We need to
do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of people who
shouldn't have them. And, again, if you are dangerously mentally ill,
if you are a criminal, if you are a domestic abuser, or if you are a
terrorist, you should not be able to have a firearm.
It is this Congress' responsibility to do what we can. Background
checks

[[Page H4045]]

are our first line of defense to making sure these aforementioned
groups don't get their hands on firearms.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. Esty).
Ms. ESTY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to drill down a little bit on the
remarks of my good friend and colleague, Mr. Thompson, about why these
two bills, why the no fly, no buy bill, and the expanded background
checks, are so important and why they are so critical for this House to
take votes on them this week; because keeping guns out of the hands of
dangerous people--and let's remember who these people are: convicted
felons, domestic violence abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill,
and the no fly, no buy would add would-be terrorists to that list--I
think is something the overwhelming number of Americans and, frankly,
people living anywhere in the world would agree would make sense.
Keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people not only makes
sense, but it works. Since background checks were instituted, over 2
million purchases of guns were stopped by would-be buyers who submitted
to a background check and it came back with a rejection saying, You are
not authorized; and the gun was not sold. So it does work. It doesn't
work perfectly, but it works.
And why does it matter that we expand background checks?
Well, let me tell you a little bit of something that I learned when I
was elected to this job and the horrible murders happened in Newtown. I
learned about the details of our present system.
When the background check system was put in 20 years ago, nobody
bought guns on the Internet. In fact, most of us didn't buy much of
anything on the Internet, but now we do. Now nearly 40 percent of the
sales go through the Internet, and almost none of those go through
background checks. That was surely not the intent of our colleagues 20
years ago. It just wasn't the way anyone bought anything.
Simply to keep up with the times, to reflect the way Americans
purchase guns, ammunition, and everything else, we need to close the
Internet loophole because it is not just gun shows, more importantly,
it is the Internet.
But let's also understand what it means now to have this loophole. I
am going to tell you the analogy that a former ATF official--Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms official--told me when I first started working on
this issue, now 3\1/2\ years ago. He said this:

Elizabeth, imagine you arrive at the airport. People flew
in today. Imagine you arrive at the airport, and there's
somebody loaded up with a suicide vest and a gun standing
next to you in line.
But there are two lines you can go to get on the plane. One
of the lines is the one we're customarily used to. We put our
things through, metal detectors, x-ray scanners, backscatter
scanners.
But there's another line. The other line you can choose,
and you could just walk right onto the plane, take your gear
with you. And if that gear happens to be bombs, if it happens
to be a suicide vest, it if happens to be guns, you could
just walk right onto the plane.

Now, I think we could all agree that that would be incredibly
dangerous, incredibly irresponsible, senseless. And yet, that is the
system we have right now for guns.

{time} 2015

If you are a terrorist, if you are a domestic violence abuser, if you
are dangerously mentally ill, and, most importantly, if you are a
convicted felon, all you have to do is go online, or all you have to do
is go to the gun show and go to the booth that doesn't list that it is
a federally licensed firearms dealer.
Folks, that is just too easy. It is too easy for the bad guys to get
their hands on guns. It is up to us to take action, the simple action
of passing these two important pieces of legislation to close these
loopholes.
Now, some will say it is too hard, this Congress is too gridlocked,
and we can't get anything done, but I want to tell you what hard is.
Hard is what Mark Barden does every day. Mark Barden's son, Daniel, was
murdered in his classroom 3\1/2\ years ago, and Mark Barden gets up
every morning. He tells me he can't even go and have breakfast with the
rest of the family because that was his special time with his son. He
can't do that now. It is too painful. So he gets up, he goes out of the
house, he makes phone calls, and he does email because he can't be
alone in his house with the rest of the family sleeping because his son
is no longer there.
Mark Barden now is one of the growing number of American citizen
activists, because this Congress has failed to act, these American
heroes who fly around the country, pound the pavement, go to churches,
synagogues, mosques, meet in schools, and go to chambers of commerce
and plead with their fellow Americans to pressure this body, the House
of Representatives, the people's House, to take action to defend the
people.
What we do is not that hard, not compared to what Mark Barden does
every day, not compared to the heartache of those in Chicago where you
have dozens dying on a given weekend. Folks, it is not that hard. We
can take the votes. We should take the heat, and we should act to save
lives.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the gentlewoman for her comments.
She is absolutely correct. Our job is not that hard. Could you
imagine that? On this floor, we are all parents; we have kids. Could
you imagine losing your child? You send them to school, where they are
supposed to be safe, and get the call that your son or your daughter
has been murdered at school? That is hard. That is difficult.
What we are doing is not hard. It certainly shouldn't be hard for the
Republican leadership to allow us to have a vote on gun violence
prevention legislation that would help prevent these things from
happening. They just happen too often. Every day, 31 people are
murdered by someone using a gun. Every day, 151 people are shot in an
assault in our country. That is hard.
What is the Republican leadership afraid of? You are afraid to take a
vote? Are you more afraid than the people that were in that nightclub
in Orlando hiding in the restrooms hoping they wouldn't be the next one
who was murdered? Are you more afraid than those children in the
classroom in Newtown, Connecticut?
Give us a vote. Let's address this issue. It is shameful. There is
nothing to be afraid of. We were elected to come here and do a job.
Give us a vote.
Our Gun Violence Prevention Task Force I mentioned heard from every
imaginable interest on this issue. We took what we heard, and we put it
in this legislation.
The King-Thompson background check legislation addressed a whole list
of issues other than just the background check provision. They were
issues that were brought to us primarily by the NRA.
The NRA asked for specific things. They asked us to make sure that
there was due process for veterans adjudicated as mentally defective
before losing their firearms rights. We put that in the bill. There was
a request to clarify that the submissions to the NICS system don't
violate HIPAA, the medical protections for patients. We put that in the
bill.
The NRA was concerned that the length of time that you have to wait
in order to get your firearm after you passed a background check was
too long, so we put in place a provision that reduces the purchase
proceed timeline. Right now it is 3 days. Eventually, it would phase
into being 24 hours, with the idea that the NICS system would have more
complete records because the bill also allows the States to get grant
funding to allow them to better get their information into the NICS,
and our bill requires the Federal courts to put records into the NICS
system.
The NRA said that hunting buddies shouldn't have to go through the
background check. If you are at the duck club, your buddy wants to sell
a shotgun, you want to buy it, you have been hunting buddies for a long
time and you know one another, they said they shouldn't have to go
through a background check, so we put a hunting buddies known person
exemption into our bill.
There was great concern that this bill would lead to some sort of Big
Brother list of any gun owners. Not only is that nonsense, but we took
their concern and we raised them one. We added a 15-year felony for the
improper storage of records by anyone in the government.
We also heard concerns that members of the armed services were
conflicted.

[[Page H4046]]

They have a permanent home address and a permanent duty station
request, and that complicated their effort to own and purchase
firearms. We put a provision in the bill that said members of our armed
services can count their home and their permanent duty station as their
residences. We took care of all of these concerns. These are things
that the NRA said they have been trying to fix for years. Well, we
fixed it in the King-Thompson bill.
At the same time, we take a step to fix this terrible problem we have
where people can buy guns without having a background check--the
dangerously mentally ill, criminals, domestic abusers, or terrorists.
This is a good bill, as I said, with 186 bipartisan coauthors. This
is a bill that should be passed. No one knows that more than the
gentleman from New York, Congressman Israel.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the State of New York (Mr.
Israel).
Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman and my
friend. More than anything, I want to thank him for his leadership in
being able to bring people on both sides of this aisle together on the
commonsense notion that, if you can't buy a plane ticket, you shouldn't
be able to buy a gun. If you are on the terrorist watch list, you
shouldn't be able to avail yourself of a weapon.
Mr. Speaker, when 20 children were murdered in Sandy Hook, the
district of the gentlewoman from Connecticut, I really believed that
Congress was going to do something. What did we do? Nothing. When
Americans were murdered in San Bernardino, I said, well, this time we
are going to do something. What did we do then? Nothing. We do moments
of silence, and we do not act. Enough silence.
We are here to protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States and protect and defend the lives of the American people, and to
allow lives to be mowed down, to allow our fellow citizens to be
slaughtered and say that the solution to this is another moment of
silence is unconscionable.
We came into session tonight, Mr. Speaker, and on Friday, the Speaker
of the House will bang the gavel down and send Congress home for a
week. In that week, so many more Americans will be killed by gun
violence--so many more. To allow this Congress to take a week's
vacation and do nothing on gun violence is unconscionable.

No bill, no break, Mr. Speaker. No bill, no break.
If the Speaker won't allow us to even vote on a bill, then we
shouldn't be allowed to take a break and go home to our districts. For
those who decide that they are going to leave here without even raising
their voices in support of a vote, I don't know how you will defend
that decision when you go home. I don't know how you will look your
constituents in the eye and say: I have a week off, and I have done
nothing to protect and defend my constituents.
I understand there are some real, fundamental, and profound
differences on various potential solutions to gun violence. What this
gentleman has done is brought us to common ground. No fly, no buy: 80
percent of the American people support no fly, no buy; 70 percent of
NRA members support no fly, no buy; the vast majority of Republicans
support no fly, no buy, along with Democrats and Independents.
The reason there is support for this bill is not only is it common
sense, but as the gentleman just demonstrated, he and his bipartisan
cosponsor, a Republican from New York, have worked out so many areas of
disagreement to areas of agreement.
When the vast majority of the American people agree that terrorists
should not be able to easily purchase guns, then the people's House
should listen to the people. We should pass no fly, no buy, and we need
to do it by the time we recess. No bill, no break, Mr. Speaker. I hope
that our colleagues understand the importance of that.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
New York for his spot-on comments, passionate comments.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the State of California
(Mr. Ruiz). He is a colleague of mine from California. As an emergency
room doctor, Dr. Raul Ruiz not only understands that we need to pass
this legislation, but he has seen the carnage that has come in for his
care.
Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, Congressman Thompson,
very much for his leadership and championing gun violence prevention in
the House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in demanding that
Speaker Ryan allow us to vote on measures to prevent gun violence
before we adjourn at the end of this week.
Last week, we watched in horror as 49 of our LGBT brothers and
sisters had their lives cut short at the hands of a firearm. This is
not the first terrible slaughter we have witnessed as a nation. These
mass shootings continue as Congress does nothing to act and nothing to
keep our constituents safe.
As an emergency physician, I have taken care of too many patients
injured by guns. I have had the gut-wrenching experience of telling
parents, families, and friends that their loved one was killed by a
gun. I have taken care of people who have been victims--innocent
victims--of drive-by shootings. I have taken care of victims who have
been shot by their spouse in a domestic dispute. I have taken care of
victims who have been caught as bystanders in a violent crime at a
store, and I have had the terrible experience of having to tell a
mother that her child--her young, adolescent child--was killed in the
streets. It is not something that we can ever be fully prepared for but
we do way too often in our country.
These are needless deaths--needless deaths--because there is an
opportunity right here and right now to curb the trend of violence in
our country. This gun violence must end.
This week, we are calling on the Speaker to allow a vote so our
constituents know where exactly we stand. There are several bills out
there that would make a difference, including the bipartisan King-
Thompson no fly, no buy that keeps guns out of the hands of terrorists
and expands and strengthens background check systems.
If we can't agree on the fact that terrorists should not get their
hands on guns in our country, then it is a political shame on the parts
that are beholden to political interests.
Let's vote on the Zero Tolerance for Domestic Abusers Act, which
would prohibit individuals convicted of stalking or domestic abuse from
purchasing or owning a firearm; and let's vote on the bipartisan Public
Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act, another bill of
Congressman Thompson, which would improve the criminal history records
systems, which would help our law enforcement and which would mandate
that all commercial gun sales utilize this background check system.

{time} 2030

It is not like we don't have ideas. It is not like we don't have a
path forward to curb gun violence in America. There is no one cure-all.
If we take a public health approach, if we reduce the risk of the
multifaceted aspects of gun violence, then we will reduce the risk of
gun violence. By reducing the risk of gun violence, we reduce the
incidence of gun violence in America.
Let us vote so that terrorists and violent criminals cannot access
firearms, so we can prevent another Orlando. Let us vote to end gun
violence to keep the American people safe.
Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in calling for no bill and no
break.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
California for his comments and for his service not only as a
distinguished Member of this body, but his time as a medical
professional. Sadly, he had to witness the carnage that comes about
because of gun violence. I applaud his effort to help us reduce gun
violence, to pass some commonsense laws that protect the Second
Amendment.
As I said earlier, as a gun owner and as a strong supporter of the
Second Amendment, I think that is absolutely necessary. I think it is
absolutely irresponsible for any gun owner to not stand up and be
counted when it comes to passing commonsense public safety measures,
such as no fly, no buy and background checks for the commercial sale of
firearms.
I thank my colleagues who joined with me this evening in this Special
Order. You heard from everyone who spoke that moments of silence are
not enough. We have had 30 moments of silence since the tragedy at
Sandy Hook. It is not enough.

[[Page H4047]]

We need to stop being silent, we need to speak up, and we need to do
our job. We need to show the courage that our constituents have placed
in us. We need to do our job to make sure that when parents send their
kids to school, they can be reasonably assured that their kids are
going to be safe. We need to do our job so that when people go into a
church to pray, they don't have to worry about some maniac coming in
and shooting them during their prayer hour. We need to do our job to
make sure that when people are relaxing and recreating in a club, or
wherever it might be, they can feel reasonably assured that their
Congress has taken steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who
are criminals and people who are dangerously mentally ill, domestic
abusers, or terrorists.
It is time to do our job. It is time to stop with the moments of
silence. It is time to stand up, show some courage, and pass some
commonsense, bipartisan gun violence prevention legislation.
I yield back the balance of my time.

____________________