[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9490]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  THE HORRIFIC TRAGEDY AT VIRGINIA TECH AND THE CALL FOR SENSIBLE GUN 
                          CONTROL LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, the horrific events at Virginia Tech just a 
few days ago cause all of us to reflect. My heart goes out to the 
victims, to the victims' families, to the people who were injured. This 
is something that is just a terrible tragedy, an unthinkable, terrible 
tragedy. And as the father of three, including two in college, it 
really makes one stop and pause.
  I say very, very respectfully, at a time of violence we need to 
reflect on this violence. And it certainly seems to me that upon 
reflection, to say that this country needs to have sensible gun control 
legislation, not legislation that would take guns out of the hands of 
people legitimately who have the right by the second amendment to own 
guns; but how could a deranged young man like the killer be able to 
just walk into a store and purchase any kind of guns at will and then 
use them to mow down 32 or 33 people?
  It is all a matter of commonsense. We get emotional about these 
issues, but I am really speaking from the heart. Commonsense says that 
we need to have sensible gun control legislation so that criminals, 
people with mental illness, cannot just purchase guns at will and as 
many as they want.
  In my home city, New York City, our mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has 
been leading a crusade for sensible gun control legislation, and I 
agree with him. And, again, it takes a tragedy of this magnitude to 
kind of just sit and reflect and say, what are we doing or what are we 
not doing and why is it an infringement on anybody's second amendment 
rights to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, deranged people, and 
people who shouldn't own them?
  I think that this country really, really needs to reflect on its 
policies regarding guns. And, again, I support the second amendment, 
and I think there are many, many legitimate reasons for people to own 
guns. But after the tragedy at Virginia Tech, I say it again: I believe 
more than ever that this country needs to adopt sensible gun control 
legislation. We need to use our commonsense, and we need to try to 
prevent tragedies like the tragedy at Virginia Tech from happening 
again.
  I know people say guns don't kill people, people kill people; that is 
true. But guns in the hands of the wrong people kill people. And I 
really think in all good conscience that we really need to reflect.
  And, again, my heart goes out to the families, the victims, and all 
the students at Virginia Tech. But as a country, we need to come to 
grips with this problem.

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