[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17952]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT, AND GUN SAFETY REFORMS

  (Mr. MORAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, first of all, to express my 
deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed in last 
week's tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
  But this incomprehensible act of violence should compel us to address 
the larger context. It is a fact that over 10,000 Americans are 
murdered by gun violence each year. No other civilized nation on the 
planet experiences anything like this annual gun slaughter, but we have 
5 percent of the population and own 50 percent of the world's guns.
  Now, the needed reforms are not radical. Many, including closing the 
gun show loophole and requiring gun owners to report to police lost or 
stolen guns, are even supported by the vast majority of NRA members. It 
would be far too simplistic and self-serving, though, to lay the blame 
for this inaction on the most commonsense measures entirely at the feet 
of the NRA, which we're inclined to do because the truth is that we, as 
the representatives of the people, are the ones who are ultimately 
responsible for doing nothing to protect our constituents.
  The fact is that if we don't take action now, we're all complicit in 
the next massacre of innocents.

                          ____________________