[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 14, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1550-H1551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TAKING A HARD LOOK AT GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Meeks) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning because the camera of 
history is rolling. It is rolling and it is recording. It is recording 
the fact that the NRA continues to distort the meaning of the Second 
Amendment, that the NRA continues to incite its members with propaganda 
and then threatens my Republican colleagues, and that my Republican 
colleagues, in fear, hover down to their wishes and do nothing to 
prevent mass shootings in the United States of America.
  The camera of history is rolling, Mr. Speaker, and the camera will 
record the fact that we have a President of the United States who 
believes in reality TV shows. In fact, he had an open

[[Page H1551]]

press reality show-type meeting where he made big promises of improving 
gun safety. The President declared, in that meeting, that Republican 
lawmakers are so scared of the NRA. He said that and admitted that the 
Republican lawmakers are scared of the NRA, but he said that he was 
not.
  Then, just a short time thereafter, what did he do? He didn't have an 
open show meeting with the NRA. He didn't want the American public to 
see how he hovered down and gave in to the wishes of the NRA. It wasn't 
an open press meeting.
  If he was so strongly against the NRA or could stand up to them, he 
should have had a meeting in the Oval Office and had the same press 
coverage so that we could hear what he was saying to them and they were 
saying to him. But all we know is what the results were.
  The results were that, after he had this behind closed doors meeting 
with NRA, he didn't come out so strong anymore. He started to back 
down. He started to say--well, he was so strong about, hey, it didn't 
make sense about 18 to buy a gun, 18 to 21. That was not in his plans 
anymore. We saw that he had changed his whole demeanor. Something took 
place.
  We say, Mr. President, if you are not afraid of the NRA, then you do 
an open meeting with the NRA with the same press as you have done with 
Members of Congress.
  This is the 30th day since we have had that terrible shooting in 
Florida, and we have got young people now outside who are saying enough 
is enough. Some think young people don't have an effect on American 
history and the camera. Well, I dare say to you, I can recall a young 
person who was only about 17 years old who stood bravely and took 
beatings to say he wanted America to go in a different direction. That 
young man is now a Member of Congress and someone whom we admire. He 
goes by the name of  John Lewis. He was only 16, 17 years old, and it 
changed America.
  And I dare say, there are some 16- and 17-year-olds who are outside 
today who will change America and make it a better place, and we need 
to join them. We have got to stop the kinds of letters that I have been 
receiving in my office.
  I have been receiving letters from individuals from the Jack and Jill 
Association, a large association of young people who want a better 
America, one named Jeremy Chavez, who said: ``My mother has been forced 
to discuss with me my fear of safety while at school in light of the 
mass murder of children our age in a place that should be a safe haven 
for our education.''
  This is a conversation that neither Jeremy's mother nor any mother 
should need to have. Yet, with 7,000 innocent children killed since 
Sandy Hook in 2012, it is one that parents across America are forced to 
have with their children.
  Parents have to instruct their kids to hide under the desk as I did 
as a child when I was afraid or we were afraid of a nuclear weapon when 
we were in the arms war. We used to have to have shelter drills. Here 
we are, in 2018, and our children have to have shelter drills because 
of Americans and others who can come in with an assault rifle and take 
lives in a matter of seconds.
  No, that is not the United States we want. That is not the United 
States that these young people want to live in, and they will stand and 
fight and change the course of America.

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