[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 15, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H2753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             THIS NATION WON'T GIVE UP ITS LIBERTIES EASILY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Cawthorn) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CAWTHORN. Mr. Speaker, for over 200 years, American citizens have 
chosen dangerous freedom over peaceful subjugation. For the past few 
decades, the American patriot has watched in horror as the Federal 
Government has opened the shackles of safety and firmly clamped them 
around the Second Amendment.
  As the Second Amendment restrictions have risen, so has violent 
crime. Washington wonders in one moment why violent crime is rising, 
and then takes away the right of Americans to defend themselves in the 
next.
  Mr. Speaker, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 
exists for the sole purpose of regulating and keeping me from three of 
the things I hold most dear as an American.
  This administration's proposed head of the ATF thinks that the Second 
Amendment was created for hunting and sporting. David Chipman could not 
be more wrong. The purpose of the Second Amendment was and is to hold 
back a tyrannical government. Chipman's tyrannical reading of the 
Constitution would turn millions of Americans into criminals overnight.
  I am here to tell you today that these Americans who seek to defend 
their right to bear arms are not the criminals our Nation ought to be 
concerned by.
  Mr. Speaker, the most dangerous threat to our safety and security 
does not arise from Americans wanting to protect themselves. No, it 
comes from men and women like those in this Chamber who would choose 
the quiet of servitude over the tumult of liberty.
  The Second Amendment was designed to protect the First, and this 
Nation will not give up its liberties so easily.

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