[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 26, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S1449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  Guns

  Madam President, on guns, the House this week will take up a measure 
to close the dangerous loopholes in the background check system used to 
certify firearms. For years, Democrats have tried to address these 
loopholes--the gun show, online, and private sales loopholes--only to 
be met with lockstep resistance by a Republican Congress beholden to 
the NRA. It is 90 percent of Americans who favor strengthening the 
background check system, not 51, not 52, 90--the majority of 
Republicans, the majority of gun owners. Any way you slice it, 
Americans are strengthening background checks. Americans believe 
felons, spousal abusers, or those adjudicated mentally ill should not 
have guns, but Congress is paralyzed because of the other side's 
obeisance to the NRA--not even after Newtown, not even after 
Charleston, not even after Las Vegas, not even after Orlando, not after 
Parkland.
  On guns, the tide is turning. Make no mistake about it, a strong 
majority of the American people support these policies now. The NRA has 
been considerably weakened. They did not do very well in the last 
elections. Finally, there is a House in Congress that will listen to 
the American people and take action on guns--thoughtful, moderate 
action on background checks.
  With each measure that passes the House, the pressure will build on 
the Senate to take up these reasonable, commonsense gun safety 
measures, and I hope my colleagues will join us.