[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.

                          ____________________