[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 19889]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     IN SUPPORT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PERSONAL PROTECTION ACT

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of a measure we will 
consider today in the Congress authored by the gentleman from Indiana 
(Mr. Souder). It is the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act, 
and there will be much sound and fury throughout the day and perhaps 
this evening on this measure.
  The measure actually overturns local District of Columbia laws that 
ban the sale and possession of hand guns, ammunition and certain types 
of semi-automatic weapons to law-abiding citizens in the District of 
Columbia.
  I believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans actually 
save lives, and there will be arguments and statistics on both sides of 
that debate. But I rise very briefly to begin the argument, 
specifically to refute what I believe will be the false federalism 
argument that many will employ today, to say that the District of 
Columbia has the right to pass its own gun laws even when, in so doing, 
they ban and discriminate against the blood-bought right to keep and 
bear arms that is enshrined in the Constitution.
  Let us be clear on this point and this definition of federalism: No 
State has the right to legislate away the blood-bought constitutional 
right of every law-abiding American to protect their person, their 
family and their liberty.

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