[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 1, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H620-H624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1815
PROTECTING PISTOL-BRACED FIREARMS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Clyde) for 30 minutes.
General Leave
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous materials.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Georgia?
There was no objection.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, on January 13 of this year, the ATF finalized its
unconstitutional rule pertaining to firearms with stabilizing braces.
Under this new ATF rule, any pistol-braced firearm would be considered
an illegal short-barreled rifle, subjecting these firearms to draconian
regulations under the NFA, the National Firearms Act of 1934, and
turning millions of law-abiding gun owners into criminals literally
overnight.
Unelected antigun bureaucrats informed law-abiding gun owners
possessing pistols with these braces attached that they will have only
120 days to register them once the rule is published in the Federal
Register. This 120-day amnesty window started yesterday, January 31.
As we have seen across the world time and time again, what comes
before gun confiscation? Gun registration. That is right. That is
exactly what ATF is now demanding.
[[Page H621]]
For stabilizer brace owners who do not wish to register their
firearms, the ATF provides four alternatives.
The first: Turn in the entire firearm with the attached stabilizing
brace to the ATF. That means forfeiting your firearm.
The second: Destroy the whole firearm. Again, another forfeiture of
your firearm.
The third: Convert the pistol brace into a long-barreled rifle that
does not require registration but is also much more difficult to use
with a brace.
The fourth: Permanently remove and dispose of, or alter the
stabilizing brace, from the firearm so that it cannot be reattached.
If gun owners who possess braced firearms refuse to register,
destroy, turn in, or alter their firearm after this 120-day window,
they face National Firearms Act violations, felony violations,
including hefty fines of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison
for having an unregistered short-barreled rifle.
In other words, the ATF's rule turns law-abiding gun owners into
criminals, into felons, for simply doing nothing.
That is right. If they do nothing, then after 120 days, they are in
felony violation of ATF's reinterpreted law, all for simply maintaining
their Second Amendment freedoms.
What exactly are these alleged hazardous stabilizing braces? A pistol
brace, also known as a stabilizing brace, is simply an accessory that
is attached to the rear of a large firearm in order to anchor the gun
to the shooter's arm to better stabilize it, allowing them to be more
accurately shot one-handed, just like what you see right here. This is
a stabilizing brace.
These braces were actually designed to help disabled veterans enjoy
the sport of shooting. In fact, as a Federal firearms licensee, my
company has sold many of these pistol brace firearms to assist disabled
veterans so they can improve their shooting capabilities and their
accuracy.
Unfortunately, these beneficial braces have faced uninformed and
unwarranted backlash from unelected bureaucrats for years.
In 2012, the ATF provided a letter determining that pistol braces
were legal to use and to shoulder. This decision was then reversed 3
years later by the ATF. In 2015, stabilizing braces became illegal to
shoulder, turning braced firearms into unregistered short-barreled
rifles. The braces remained legal if held at arm's length but illegal
if brought back to the shoulder. How does that make any sense?
This flip-flopped again in 2017 when stabilizing braces were once
more determined to be legal to shoulder by the ATF, as long as the
original design of the brace remained unmodified.
Here we are in 2023 as braced pistols are vilified yet again,
declared by the ATF to be unregistered short-barreled rifles requiring
registration and their owners classified as felons if they simply do
nothing.
Clearly, as in most cases of unconstitutional gun control, unelected
bureaucrats who have little to no knowledge of firearms or respect for
Second Amendment rights are steamrolling ahead with unlawful
restrictions, which will impact, estimates say, anywhere from 3 million
to up to 40 million firearms across the country.
Why? To advance the less dangerous dream of disarming our Nation and
dismantling our Second Amendment rights. That is what gun control is
all about.
The ultimate goal is an unarmed and subjugated America. I can assure
gun owners across this great Nation that I and Second Amendment-loving
Republican colleagues will do everything in our power to never allow
that to happen.
We are fighting this, and we are not going to give up. Congress
cannot allow the ATF to brazenly disregard both our Constitution and
Congress' role, its sole role in legislation, its legislative
authority.
I don't know if ATF Director Dettelbach needs a copy of the
Constitution to revisit the explicit language of the Second Amendment
or the direct powers granted to the three branches of government, but
the last time I checked, only Congress has the authority to make laws.
Let me say that again. Congress makes laws, not unelected antigun
bureaucrats at the ATF or any other part of the executive branch, for
that matter.
Yet, given the ATF's severely misguided decision to advance its
unconstitutional pistol brace rule, I am actively leading the fight to
stop this grave injustice.
We have three key tools available to us in Congress to fight the
ATF's tyranny.
The first is H.R. 646, the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today Act,
or the SHORT Act, which I reintroduced yesterday with Senators Roger
Marshall and John Kennedy. This legislation repeals elements of the
National Firearms Act, thereby prohibiting the ATF from registering and
banning pistols with stabilizing braces.
The second element is a joint resolution of disapproval under the
Congressional Review Act, which we will introduce in a matter of days
to block the ATF's rule from infringing on Americans' Second Amendment
rights. Congressman Richard Hudson, our NRCC chair, has joined me in
co-leading this in the House, while Senators John Kennedy and Roger
Marshall will introduce the resolution in the Senate.
The third way that we can fight this here in Congress is through the
power of the purse. As we write the ATF's appropriations for fiscal
year 2024, we can prevent taxpayer dollars from funding this backdoor
gun control through what is called a limitation amendment. As a new
member on the Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on
Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, I look forward to
assisting in this effort.
With these three initiatives, we can work together to stop the ATF's
unconstitutional overreach.
It would be better if the ATF simply decided to rescind the pistol
brace rule so we would not have to take these permanent measures, but
we are fully prepared to do so if they will not rescind it.
I am proud to have several of my colleagues here tonight to expose
the ATF's unconstitutional rule, as well as to highlight how Congress
can stop this latest form of gun control from infringing on law-abiding
gun owners' Second Amendment freedoms.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Van Drew).
Mr. VAN DREW. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for doing this
today, and I thank him for leading the fight.
Yesterday, I stood on this floor fighting to protect Americans' First
Amendment rights. Today, I am standing here fighting to protect
Americans' Second Amendment rights. God help our Constitution.
Congress has afforded far too much deference to unelected D.C.
bureaucrats in Federal agencies, and it is time, with our majority, to
rein in that extreme power.
The left has talked about taking your gas stoves away, has censored
your speech, and now the ATF, under the guidance of this
administration, is coming to take away millions of pistols from law-
abiding gun owners, individuals who own pistol braces, which were
originally approved by the ATF themselves.
What has changed? What is different? What is new? I will tell you
what has changed. What has changed is now we have an administration
that is desperate to erode our Second Amendment rights in more and more
pervasive ways as every year passes. It has continually chipped away at
Americans' constitutional rights because of the lack of understanding
of what the actual roots of gun violence are.
The administration is abusing the powers delegated to the ATF to
illegally track gun owners, perform unauthorized compliance checks at
people's homes, and now banning popular modifications that, I will say
it again, they approved in the first place.
It has to stop. We are tired of it. Americans are tired of it. This
has to end. That is why I am proud to join these efforts to protect gun
owners across this great United States of America.
As their duly elected Representatives, we must fight back. We must
stand tall. We must be tough and stand against this abuse of power on
their behalf.
Let me say this: As a duly elected official and a gun owner myself,
all I have left to say to the ATF is enough is enough. Our right to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
[[Page H622]]
Mr. CLYDE. I thank my good friend from New Jersey, from one of those
blue States where you don't necessarily think that there are passionate
gun owners. I appreciate them.
Mr. VAN DREW. South Jersey. I am going to teach you that. South
Jersey is a lot different.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Colorado
(Mrs. Boebert), who is also the co-chair of our Second Amendment Caucus
here in Congress and my good friend.
Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, first, I thank my friend, fellow Freedom
Caucus colleague, and proven fighter for the Second Amendment, Mr.
Clyde, for organizing this Special Order. I thank him for highlighting
what is going on here.
Mr. Speaker, the ATF's new pistol brace rule violates the separation
of powers. Bureaucrats don't create laws; Congress does. This rule
functions like a law that Congress never passed.
ATF--Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. In western Colorado, we call
that a fun weekend, but D.C. bureaucrats have used this agency to
infringe on the rights of the American people.
When you research how many pistol braces the ATF expects to be
registered, the number varies. Some say 10 million, others say 20
million, and it may even be 40 million.
Why such disparity? Because the ATF doesn't know how many are out
there because law-abiding Americans do not trust them enough to tell
them.
In fact, there are probably going to be many more boating accidents
this spring and summer than we have ever encountered in U.S. history
from law-abiding gun owners.
We don't trust the ATF because of their overreaching actions, exactly
like we are seeing with this rule.
There has been a lot of talk about defunding the ATF, even abolishing
the agency altogether. I am still waiting to hear a good reason why the
ATF should remain an agency at all. I have yet to hear one.
Instead of providing regulations that keep our communities safe, this
agency has made our communities more dangerous by laundering weapons to
the cartels. Operation Fast and Furious exposed the recklessness of the
ATF, how little regard they have for the rule of law, and Americans
have had a hard time viewing this agency and its rules as legitimate.
Think about it. The ATF had about 1,700 firearms that were being
tracked. They had tracers on them. They were selling to known criminals
during this Operation Fast and Furious. They lost 1,700 traced
firearms, and now they expect to go after law-abiding American citizens
for firearm accessories?
Are they really that competent to go after this many millions of
Americans for a firearm accessory, a stabilizing brace, when they had
1,700 tracked firearms in the hands of known criminals that they just
lost?
I think that alone proves the legitimacy of this agency, and I am
very excited to bring them into an Oversight and Accountability
Committee hearing so they can speak for themselves as to why they
should remain an agency in our Federal Government and not have the
appropriate features of their agency put under another, like the FBI,
once we clean that out.
{time} 1830
But other than that, the Second Amendment, it is absolute.
All the regulations the bureaucrats make, the laws that bureaucrats
are trying to make, the unconstitutional laws that are passed by the
Federal Government, the State legislatures, they make our country less
safe. Gun-free zones are the most dangerous places in our country.
The Second Amendment is absolute, and it is here to stay.
A recent report states that Americans own 46 percent of the world's
guns. I think we need to get our numbers up, boys and girls.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Clyde for hosting this Special Order. I
thank him for bringing us all together on this topic and, hopefully, we
can shed some light to the American people and let them know that we
are fighting against this agency and their abuse of separation of
powers.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Colorado for her
unwavering defense of the Second Amendment of our Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Crenshaw).
Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership
on this important issue because the unelected career bureaucrats are at
it again. They are launching attacks on our constitutional rights, the
constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners.
This seems to be the sole purpose of the agency lately, attacking the
Second Amendment. Now they want to ban pistol braces.
Americans who don't know what a pistol brace is might have some
obvious questions after hearing about this ban. What is a pistol brace?
Obviously, it makes guns more deadly, right? It makes guns shoot
faster. It makes them want to be used only by people who want to murder
other people.
Why else would the ATF want to ban it?
But the Americans who actually use pistol braces know the reality:
There is zero logical reason to ban pistol braces. It is a device used
by a lot of disabled veterans, a lot of people I know, to provide more
stability when shooting a gun.
Tens of millions of Americans own this brace, but they would
immediately become felons when this goes into effect. That is not even
practical from a law enforcement perspective.
Now, you could argue, actually, that the pistol brace makes the gun
safer; it makes it less likely to shoot things they are not aiming at.
But no, the impulsive leaders at ATF have once again failed to apply
simple logic and reason to their decisionmaking and, instead, chose to
apply the mindset of the authoritarian, gun-grabbing bureaucrats we all
know that they are.
Congress cannot sit idly by. I recently re-introduced a bipartisan
piece of legislation that would create an appeals process for small
business owners hurt by these haphazard rulings. Right now, the only
recourse that exists is for these gun shop owners and manufacturers to
sue the Federal Government in court.
Now, for the average American, that is not exactly doable. It takes
time and a lot of money and a lot of resources.
My bill would put the ATF in line with every other Federal regulatory
agency's appeal process and ensure Americans can petition their
government for the redress of grievances and get decisions handed down
in a timely manner.
These taxpayer-funded, anti-gun activists at the ATF cannot continue
to trample on our Second Amendment rights without a response from
Congress.
We must never cease fighting against these shameless power grabs, and
Republican must use our House majority to protect law-abiding gun
owners.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas for those
inspiring words.
I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie), my good friend.
Mr. MASSIE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for
organizing this time on the floor. I think it is so important.
We are talking about the brace ruling from the ATF. A brace is a
firearm accessory for disabled individuals. But I am sure Biden went to
his Attorney General and to the ATF and said, you know what, I hate
guns. How can I take millions of them off the street, without regard
for if they are legally owned? And how can I do it without going to
Congress because I really don't be want to do that.
Now, keep in mind, this is administrative law. Our Founders were
against this type of thing because they knew that the laws shouldn't
change with each administration.
When Democrats controlled both Chambers of Congress and the White
House, they didn't pass this legislation.
This ATF rule says that gun owners have 120 days of amnesty to
register or destroy their firearm if it has this firearm accessory. If
you don't obey, you become a felon.
What this administrative rule does not do is it does not make people
safer. This ruling turns millions of law-abiding gun owners into
criminals. Tens of millions of pistol braces have been sold in the
United States, with the permission of the ATF, the written permission
of the ATF.
They are telling you to take this off, or transfer it, or register it
like a machine gun, basically, the same paperwork.
[[Page H623]]
If you want to turn it into a short-barreled rifle, guess what?
Twenty-six percent of Americans live in a State where the ATF has left
them with no option. They will create an illegal gun in their State if
they comply with the ATF ruling in order to keep their gun.
How much compliance do we think there is going to be?
Well, there was a bump stock rule similar to this. There are about
half a million bump stocks estimated in circulation; 526 have been
returned to the government. So they have made half a million felons is
what they have done.
Now, Mr. Clyde has several bills to fix this. I can anticipate--or I
believe Justice Scalia, if he were alive, I can tell you, I believe,
based on a meeting that I had with him, which one he would prefer.
Several of us had breakfast with Scalia, and we said, oh, Obama is so
bad, and we don't have the constitutional balance of government. Fix
this for us, Supreme Court.
Scalia said, this is not my job to referee fights between you and the
executive branch. By the way, you are the most powerful, powerful
branch. You are Article I, and you can't--you have all the tools you
need to stop what he is doing.
One of my colleagues said, well, impeachment is so hard. Scalia said,
I am not talking about impeachment. You are funding everything you
complain about.
So I believe that his favorite method here, and it is certainly my
favorite method, would have been to defund this activity.
The ruling is unconstitutional. The Second Amendment is clear. Shall
not be infringed means shall not be infringed.
I urge all Americans to call their Representatives and support
Andrew Clyde's bill.
Mr. CLYDE. I thank my good friend from Kentucky because he is
absolutely right. We have the power of the purse.
I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber), my good friend.
Mr. WEBER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia
for yielding to me and for his efforts in leading this fight.
Let's get something straight. I am a proud Texan, and let me tell
you, Texans are not happy when the government comes after their Second
Amendment right.
My District 14, on the Gulf Coast of Texas, has more concealed
handgun licensees than any other congressional district in Texas, and I
have to assume in the country, for that matter.
The Second Amendment is extremely clear: ``The right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'' What is so hard to
understand about that?
But, let's face it, folks. The far left's dangerous attack on the
United States Constitution continues unabated, with yet another example
right here with the ATF's unconstitutional pistol brace rule, which
bans millions of firearms with stabilizing braces.
The ATF ruling could turn as many as 40 million Americans into
felons, and those 40 million Americans are sick and tired of faceless
bureaucrats trying to destroy the Second Amendment.
Mr. Speaker, Thomas Jefferson once said, where the people fear the
government, there is tyranny. Where the government fears the people,
there is liberty.
I would add, Mr. Speaker, fear the government that fears your guns.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas for those
great words. He is absolutely correct. When the government fears the
people, there is liberty.
I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz), my good friend.
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership and
for yielding.
The ATF's new rule criminalizing pistol braces is a brazen and
unlawful attempt to usurp congressional authority. This pistol brace
rule will fail for the same reason the bump stock rule failed: The ATF
does not have the authority to create Federal law. Nobody voted for the
ATF, though I know a lot of people who would vote against them if they
could.
This new rule will ban pistol braces on certain firearms, forcing
users to jump through numerous hoops to comply with this new decree or
risk becoming a felon.
Disabled veterans and others have used these braces for years to help
them fire pistols, and the ATF has unilaterally decided that this is no
longer acceptable. Now, otherwise law-abiding Americans will either
have to destroy their newly illegal firearms, or figure out how to
comply with an arbitrary and confusing regulatory scheme outlined in
the National Firearms Act.
The ATF cannot be trusted to protect our rights to keep and bear
arms. There is no timeline in which the ATF, under any administration,
would become an ally. It needs to go. We need to abolish the ATF before
they abolish our Second Amendment rights.
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be the name of a chain of
convenience stores in Florida, not a Federal agency.
I urge every red-blooded American and every conservative in this
Congress to stand with Representative Clyde on his legislation, and to
stand with me and cosponsor my bill, the Abolish the ATF Act of 2023.
Let's get rid of this unlawful agency once and for all, and let this
Special Order be considered a shot across the bow.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Florida for that
is, indeed, a great statement: A shot across the bow; a great example
of what the United States Navy would do.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett),
my good friend.
Mr. BURCHETT. I thank Mr. Clyde and the Speaker for your service to
our great country.
I don't have any notes for this, but I do want to say the ATF, to me,
is the swamp.
Now, here we have a group of unelected bureaucrats, dadgummit, that
have taken upon themselves to interpret a law.
It always reminds me, when I was in Nashville one time. I was sitting
at the Crown Plaza across the street from the Capitol with one of my
dear friends who just passed away; his name was Tom Hensley. He was
called the Golden Goose. He was the liquor lobbyist. I never voted for
his bills, but he always liked me.
He told me one time, a guy came up and threatened him that worked for
our Governor and threatened him; and he sat there, and he chomped on
his cigar; and he walked away and he said--Burchett, he said, you know
what? He said, in a few more years he will be gone and the old goose
will still be sitting here. That is exactly, exactly the mentality of
the swamp.
It is not like on an episode of The Simpsons where they are all--six
people are sitting around at a table in the old cartoon, and they are
deciding what is going on. It is a bunch of unelected, arrogant
bureaucrats who think they know what is best for this country.
Dadgummit, the ATF has overstepped their bounds once again. Law-
abiding Americans, law-abiding citizens, law-abiding Tennesseans should
not be deemed criminal because of some bureaucratic whim.
I appreciate the gentleman, thank him for his service to our country,
thank him for this bill. I look forward to voting with him on this bill
and being a sponsor.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the great
State of Florida (Mrs. Cammack).
Mrs. CAMMACK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Clyde) for hosting this Special Order on an important topic.
My speech is well beyond the time I am allotted, so I am just going
to dispense with the notes, really, and talk about how absolutely
insane, ridiculous, and unconstitutional this new rule is.
Not only has it been completely blown out of proportion what the
brace is, a brace that was originally designed for disabled veterans,
increases stability, and since 2015, had been ruled as an accessory by
the ATF which, under their own regulations, under their own guidance,
they said that they didn't have jurisdiction over accessories.
So I thought that was very interesting that now we have an unelected
swamp creature, a bureaucrat who thinks that they can now make felons--
law-abiding citizens, felons by now instituting this 120-day rule.
A lot of people have talked about this, but few have talked about the
[[Page H624]]
economic impact this will have. Based on the NICS data that we have,
this is going to be a $1.9 billion hit to the firearms industry; $1.9
billion to law-abiding citizens.
Believe me, this rule has nothing to do with gun safety. This has
nothing to do with making communities safer. This is just a backroom
attempt, a backdoor attempt to get at the firearm industry. That is all
this is and nothing more.
{time} 1845
This is why, Mr. Speaker, we have to pass the SHORT Act. This is why
we have to pass the REINS Act, because the REINS Act would prohibit any
regulation that has a $100 million or more impact to an industry to
come back to Congress for an up or down vote.
You can fire your Congress-critter, but you cannot fire these
unelected bureaucrats. We need to pass the REINS Act. We need to
absolutely stop this regulation in its tracks. It is time to, once and
for all, let those swamp creatures know that the Second Amendment shall
not be infringed.
Mr. Speaker, thank you to the gentleman from Georgia and my friend,
Mr. Clyde, for hosting this special order on such an important topic.
Most of you have likely heard about the new rule from the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, that targets
stabilizing braces for pistols. The rule wrongly reclassifies these
braces as ``short rifles,'' which are heavily regulated under that
National Firearms Act. The final rule, published yesterday, January
31st started a 120-day clock for law-abiding gunowners to destroy,
forfeit, or register their braces with the ATF. Otherwise, the new
regulation will consider any unregistered stabilizing pistol brace as a
short-barreled rifle and will subject the owner to penalties of up to
10 years of imprisonment, up to a $10,000 fine, or both.
This is insane and it's an infringement on Americans' Second
Amendment rights through bureaucratic rulemaking.
For those who aren't familiar with stabilizing braces, these devices
were originally designed with disabled veterans in mind and have been
on the market for over a decade. Until last year, the ATF repeatedly
stated that stabilizing braces did not convert the handguns into short-
barreled rifles. In fact, they claimed going back to 2015 that braces
were an accessory and therefore not subject to jurisdiction of the ATF.
But Now, bureaucrats at the ATF are changing course. By changing this
definition, the ATF is effectively making criminals out of millions of
law-abiding Americans when they do not register by a certain date. The
ATF is reversing over a decade of agency guidance and rulings on which
the firearm industry and law-abiding gun owners have relied for years.
The ATF estimates around three million stabilizing braces have been
sold, however, a report from the Congressional Research Service puts
that number much higher--between 10 million and 40 million.
If you look at just the cost--the cost of this new regulation--a rule
put in place by unelected bureaucrats, this one rule will cost the
firearm industry and gun owners a whopping $1.9 billion! This number
was calculated by using data in NICS and industry data on the average
cost of pistol braced firearms. Make no mistake. This new rule is not
about gun safety. This is not about gun violence. This is a back door
attempt to take down the firearm industry and make millions of law
abiding citizens--felons. We must stop this unconstitutional overreach
by the ATF and we will.
The Second Amendment is straightforward--the right to bears arms
shall not be infringed. We cannot allow the federal government to make
it harder--or impossible--for small business owners, homeowners, and
law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. That is why we must pass the
Joint Resolution of Disapproval for this rule, which prevents it from
going into effect and prohibits the ATF from implementing a similar
rule in the future. In addition, we must pass the SHORT Act, which
would remove the unconstitutional taxation, registration, and
regulation in the National Firearms Act of Short Barreled Rifles, Short
Barreled Shotguns, and those classified as Any Other Weapons.
Finally, this is just another in a very long line of examples of why
we must pass the REINS Act. The REINS Act would prohibit these swamp
creatures--the unelected bureaucratic class from legislating from the
agency rather than through Congress. The bill is simple. Any major rule
or regulation would be required to come back to Congress for an up or
down vote. Why? Because you can fire Your Congress-critter. But the
big, government establishment has made it virtually impossible to fire
these bureaucrats. Once passed, this rule would have never been allowed
to go into effect. It's time to pass the Reins act. Time to pass the
short act and protect our constitutional rights.
I am proud to join Representative Clyde in introducing these bills,
and I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the issue here tonight.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my great colleague from the State of
Florida for those encouraging remarks. I thank all of my colleagues who
participated here in this Special Order tonight. It is incredibly
important that we show Americans that we are united and unwavering in
protecting and preserving our Second Amendment freedoms.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________