[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H767-H768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      GUN VIOLENCE SURVIVORS WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, last night in this Chamber, we heard a 
bloviating, self-congratulatory speech full of exaggerations, half-
truths, and outright falsehoods. The President pretended to have 
addressed, or was going to address, concerns of the American people.
  He said he is taking care of prescription drugs. Yeah. Really. They 
haven't done a damn thing. We sent a bill to the Senate and it is 
sitting there.
  Second, he said, oh, we are going to protect preexisting conditions. 
Funny thing, his Attorney General is in court arguing that those 
preexisting conditions should no longer be protected. But, hey, what 
the heck.
  And then he did devote one sentence--one sentence--to infrastructure. 
What happened to the $2 trillion plan he campaigned on and carries on 
about all the time? Well, so far, he has only proposed cuts.
  But one issue of vital concern to the American people that is the 
focus this week--this is National Gun Violence Survivors Week--did not 
receive a single mention by the President, despite the fact that 
several commonsense bipartisan reforms and programs have passed this 
House and have received no action in the Senate in a year.
  H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Comprehensive Background Checks Act, passed on 
February 27. No action in the Senate.
  The Enhanced Background Checks Act passed February 28--bipartisan. 
Again, no action in the Senate.
  Every year, guns are sold to people who aren't supposed to have 
them--including at that horrible church shooting a couple of years 
ago--because of a mandate that, if there is confusion over a background 
check, they have to get the gun within 3 days.
  Over the last 10 years, 35,000 guns, because of that provision, were 
sold to people who were not qualified under Federal law to have the 
guns. And guess what. Then the Feds contact the FBI who screwed up the 
background check, contacts the local law enforcement and says, ``Hey, 
go get the gun

[[Page H768]]

from that felon,'' endangering our local law enforcement.
  This would plug that loophole.
  The Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization passed April 4. No 
action in the Senate. And, for the first time in 20 years, we are going 
to do some research on gun violence. There are other bills we should be 
doing.

  In my State, we have adopted red flag laws. And over here, they say, 
well, we can't have red flag laws for abusers because of their 
constitutional rights.
  Well, we have set it up in a way that we have had 160 petitions for 
red flag restrictions. Most of them--actually, the majority--were for 
people at risk of suicide; and then a minority were for abusive 
relationships, and 32 of those were denied by a judge.
  Due process was followed, but lives were saved. But, no, we can't 
take that.
  Bump stocks, we banned fully automatic weapons decades ago. Bump 
stocks, essentially, turn a semiautomatic into a very inaccurate, 
nearly full automatic in terms of ready to fire. But if you are 
shooting at a stadium full of people, it doesn't matter how inaccurate 
it is; you are going to hit a lot of people.
  We can't even bring up legislation--or, well, the Republicans won't 
support legislation to ban bump stocks, hate crimes legislation, the 
list goes on.
  Just one other quick issue. You can go online to armslist.com, and if 
you are not eligible to buy a gun, you can get one. It is very evident 
that, in study after study done, that many of the people selling guns 
on armslist.com are felons and not allowed to own firearms, and they 
will sell to other felons. It will say: No background check necessary. 
Will cross State lines--all sorts of things like that.
  All those things need to be banned. Those are commonsense gun 
violence reforms.
  And, in this week, just, really, this week, National Gun Violence 
Survivors Week, let's do something to end the bloodshed.

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