[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 112 (Tuesday, July 12, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4669-H4670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Colorado (Mr. Perlmutter) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, it has been 4 days since the mass 
shooting in Dallas. It has been a month since the mass shooting in 
Orlando. It has been 7 months since the mass shooting in San 
Bernardino, and at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. 
It has been a year since the mass shooting in Charleston. It has been 2 
years since the mass shooting in Umpqua Community College in Oregon. It 
has been 3\1/2\ years since the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. 
It has been 4 years since the mass shooting at the theater in Aurora, 
Colorado. It has been 5\1/2\ years since the mass shooting in Tucson, 
Arizona, where our colleague, Gabby Giffords, was shot.
  Mr. Speaker, please talk to Speaker Ryan. Not once, after any of 
those shootings, in all of these 5\1/2\ years, have we had one hearing 
or one vote on gun violence, not one.
  Now, we have had 60 votes on repealing the Affordable Care Act, none 
of which went anywhere. The Republican majority has spent millions of 
dollars going after Benghazi or emails to no avail; but not one vote, 
not one hearing, nothing on gun violence.

                              {time}  1100

  Now, Mr. Speaker, you know I would much rather be here talking about 
the Broncos winning the 50th Super Bowl. I would much rather be talking 
about the unbelievable accuracy of NASA getting the Juno satellite to 
Jupiter after 5 years of space travel within 1 second of the planned 
time. I would much rather be talking about Jenny Simpson, who is a 
University of Colorado graduate who is going to Rio, and wish her much 
success and that the wind be at her back. Those would be a lot more 
fun. Those would be some things I would love to do. But we have got to 
grapple with this issue. It is not going away, and we are not going 
away.
  We asked for two commonsense pieces of legislation. They certainly 
aren't going to handle all the ills of society, but one is no fly, no 
buy; meaning, if you are on the terrorist watch list, you don't get a 
gun. The second is so common sense, which is background

[[Page H4670]]

checks on anybody who wants to purchase a weapon.
  Those two simple pieces of legislation we have asked to be brought to 
this floor. In fact, a couple weeks ago, we were so upset that we 
actually did a filibuster and broke some rules of this House to try to 
make our voices heard to have a vote. The Republican majority has 
refused to let us have that vote.
  Let us have a hearing. These are bipartisan pieces of legislation 
sponsored by Mr. King. Mr. Curbelo, just a second ago, asked that 
something be brought up, but it is not going to be brought up.
  It is time. It is time that we have a vote. It is time that we have a 
hearing. It is time that we do something about gun violence.
  Today I just brought the picture of Garrett Swasey, the police 
officer who was killed in the mass shooting at the Planned Parenthood 
facility in Colorado Springs, and a picture to remember, Alex Teves, 
who was killed in the Aurora movie theater protecting his girlfriend 
from being shot by a madman who thought he was The Joker.
  It is time, Mr. Speaker. It is time, Mr. Speaker, that we address 
these things. We can't avoid it any longer. These subjects are not 
going away. We are not going away. These people cannot have died in 
vain.
  Whether it is the 5 police officers shot last week, the 49 people 
killed at the nightclub, the hundreds who have been killed by guns over 
the course of the last few years, it is time for a hearing, and it is 
time for a vote.

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