[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4827-4832]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1940
               GUN LEGISLATION: A PATHWAY TO SAVING LIVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, thank you so very much for the 
opportunity to discuss with my colleagues a pending action in the 
United States Congress and a plea for civility and fairness.
  As I do that, let me acknowledge Equal Pay Day and my support, as 
I've done over the years, of Congresswoman DeLauro's continued 
acknowledgment and recognizing of the need to finally put an end to 
disparities in pay for women. That's what America is all about, and I'm 
delighted to join my colleagues who have already spoken to the idea of 
ensuring that we have equal pay. I hope we can pass that legislation.
  I also want to raise an issue and offer my concern and expression, if 
you will, of comfort to the students at Lone Star College. Part of Lone 
Star College is in my congressional district, and I share that with one 
of my colleagues in Texas. I just wanted to say to all of the parents 
and to my colleagues: I have children who have finished college. We 
support our children, all of our children, going to a safe place and 
being safe and having the ability to be educated in a safe place. So I 
express great sympathy. We are not sure of the status or whether or not 
there has been any loss of life. We know that there are persons who are 
critical, and we are wishing and hoping for their safety.
  We do want to determine the facts, and our law enforcement was there 
expeditiously. Allow me to acknowledge the Lone Star Police, the police 
in the surrounding area, the Harris County Sheriff's Department, and 
the first responders who were there as well.
  Today, however, I want to acknowledge that we have a pending crisis, 
and that is that we have the need to pass sensible gun legislation. Why 
do I call it a ``crisis''? It is because we are moving toward a day 
that has been designated by the leadership in the Senate that we would 
be able to vote on sensible gun legislation. Remember, I've said 
``sensible'' gun legislation. So, today, I rise to the floor of the 
House because I think it is crucial--I think it is imperative--that we 
find that common path to save lives. That's what it really is about. It 
is a pathway to be able to save lives.
  I am delighted to have one of my distinguished colleagues on the 
floor. She is the former minority leader of the Ohio House, the 
distinguished Congresswoman from Columbus, Ohio, who will share her 
thoughts about the pending vote that is coming up this Thursday.
  Let me just cite for you that we have heard the commitments and 
sermons and passion after each tragedy. I remember Columbine. I was 
here, Mr. Speaker, for Columbine. In fact, I was appointed to a school 
safety select committee to talk about school safety at that time. 
Obviously, a lot of us were here for Aurora. Virginia Tech, I was here 
for that as well and then, of course, Newtown and then cases in 
between. Many of us are here for the tragedies that we see when we go 
home.
  Just this past weekend in Sugar Land, Texas, an individual who was 
mentally challenged was shot dead in his house when he came out of his 
bedroom, Mr. Speaker, pointing a gun at law enforcement officers. Many 
of you know the tragedy that we face in Texas, which we are still 
mourning. Two prosecutors and a prosecutor's wife--district attorneys 
in Texas--were shot dead. Individuals were shot dead by someone who 
should not have had a gun. Tragically, the individual was released and 
should not have been released; but more importantly, they were able to 
get a gun through what we understand might have been a straw purchase--
somebody else purchasing the gun for them. So I believe we are no 
longer at the point when we can have sermons or we can mourn and yet 
not do something.
  Let me thank--I think ``applaud'' is not the appropriate 
terminology--those parents who flew in Air Force One from Newtown, 
Connecticut. You can imagine that they are hurting. Tears came to my 
eyes as I saw them deplane, come down out of Air Force One, knowing 
that they are still hurting. I heard a quote that said: For some of us, 
it's months. For those parents, it's one day at a time.
  To imagine little ones--5 and 6 years old--whose bodies were riddled, 
and they are here in the hallways of Congress to be able to ask us: Can 
we do the right thing that is for the American people?
  And I want to answer today a question that I raised: Can we stop the 
filibuster? Can we resolve the fact that sensible gun legislation does 
not violate the Second Amendment?
  In fact, we protect the Second Amendment. No one has challenged the 
Second Amendment, and no one has challenged permits for concealed 
weapons that are in many States. With the tragedy that occurred in 
Arizona in which someone was using an automatic weapon and had multiple 
rounds and for those who say, you see, if the good guys had a gun--and 
in that instance the good guy had a gun and was probably going to shoot 
the wrong people if someone had not intervened--what we need to do, in 
essence, is to ensure that we find common ground and do sensible 
things.
  What do I think are sensible things?
  Sensible things include universal background checks. I know there are 
some discussions about family exchanges and one-to-one exchanges among 
family members. Let me just say, Mr. Speaker, I'm open to reasonable 
discussions, but we've got to close the gun show loopholes; we've got 
to close people opening up their trunks on a highway and giving them to 
someone who is going to wind up shooting in a robbery; or going into an 
old man's house just like happened in my community last night--shooting 
an 83-year-old and taking his car--or the incidence, as I indicated, of 
this individual with mental health concerns; or the bloody killing of a 
mother's daughter and her granddaughter by what I would say is a crazed 
ex-husband, who did not need to have a gun.
  So isn't it reasonable to think that universal background checks 
would weed out those who did not need to have them?
  We're not going to knock on your door and take any guns from 
families, but we do hope that you will secure them. I hope that I'll be 
able to get a vote on H.R. 65, a bill that was taken after an ordinance 
that I passed in the city of Houston, as a member of the city council--
because we have legislative authority--and, in fact, legislation that's 
the law of the land in Texas, and that is to hold people responsible 
for not locking up their guns.
  I would be happy to yield for a moment to the distinguished 
gentlelady from Ohio. I just want to pause on that a moment. Let's 
think about storing guns. I want to thank her for her legislative 
prowess. We are so proud that she has already come here ready to go, 
because anybody who was the minority leader of the Ohio House, if you 
will, is already ready to go. She is already taking charge on women's 
issues, and she is taking charge on economic issues. I am very proud to 
yield to the gentlelady at this time.
  Mrs. BEATTY. Thank you to my colleague, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson 
Lee. It is an honor for me to join you.
  As I stand here today on this floor and think that we have the 
opportunity to pass legislation that makes sense on gun laws, and as I 
stand here on this floor and realize that the gun debate is heating up 
and that we are considering that we would filibuster

[[Page 4828]]

and protect those who don't want us to make a decision, it does not 
make sense to me. We are asking for sensible gun laws. We are asking 
for laws that can help save lives. Whether it's in Congresswoman 
Jackson Lee's district in Texas, whether it's in Newtown, Connecticut, 
or in my Third Congressional District in Ohio, it's for us to take this 
opportunity to stand together and save lives.
  We stand on this floor, and we salute so many good things, so many 
changes. So the question now for me is: Why? Why can't we come 
together? The things we're asking for: to close the loopholes. The 
things we're asking for: to make sure that someone doesn't have an 
assault weapon in his home that can shoot 30 rounds of ammunition in 30 
seconds.

                              {time}  1950

  I support the Second Amendment, but I don't think that our 
forefathers meant for us to do what we are doing today. I don't think 
that they envisioned that innocent children, babies, would be 
assassinated, if you will, by someone who had one of these assault 
weapons. I think today as Members of Congress on both sides of the 
aisle, that we understand that we are about saving lives, that we are 
here to protect the innocent, that we took an oath to serve.
  So as I reflect back on where I was when that incident happened in 
Newtown, I was sitting with colleagues on both sides of the aisle at 
Harvard University in training, where we were talking about working 
together, where we were talking about how we can make this wonderful 
America better. So now as I reflect today, let's use those same things 
that we were being trained on to make this America better. Let's make 
it better by voting an up-or-down vote. Let's make it better in the 
spirit of saving lives.
  So I proudly join you as we ask all of our colleagues to come 
together and do what's right: sensible gun laws, background checks, 
closing the loopholes. That's what we are asking for. For me it is 
quite simple. The answer is: let's vote.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank the gentlelady for bringing a sense of 
passion to this debate. So many of us can remember where we were and 
how incredulous it was when we heard the news coming, and first we 
thought this is not real. We couldn't be hearing it accurately. Maybe 
we were hearing the tragedy of six adults, that already was innocent 
teachers and principals, but we couldn't imagine you were talking about 
a classroom, that someone would open the door in a recovery mode and 
see the carnage that one had to be able to look at. Not to be any more 
graphic, but so much so that, as I understand it, many could not view 
the situation.
  And so I thought it was imperative to come from Houston today, and 
before I got on the airplane I stopped at the Konia Learning Center for 
K-6, and I listened to babes talk about knowing Sandy Hook, raising 
their hands and about wanting to stop gun violence, and understanding 
that guns in the hands of teachers would not be the way to go. Having 
little ones in the fifth and sixth grades explain how fearful they 
would be to have guns with teachers, not because it was the idea that 
our teachers are not ones that are loving, but we know what happens 
with human nature and accidents, guns being taken out of drawers or 
purses or pockets and what can happen.
  Yes, I believe we can have common agreement on increasing school 
resource officers, however school districts would like to use them. We 
have very fine police departments for many of the school districts that 
I represent; and do you know what those chiefs of police told me in an 
earlier hearing that I had in my district, not one of them, university 
chiefs of police or school district chiefs of police, wanted to arm 
school personnel and teachers in the classroom to be able to protect 
our children. Those were the chiefs of police. I didn't put words in 
their mouths, and they wanted it to be known that they are the 
responsible ones for security, not to be able to arm those who in 
essence would be responsible for shooting a gun, making a decision when 
to shoot, and then not making a decision right and causing havoc, 
causing themselves to be shot, or causing someone else to be shot.
  As a matter of fact, at a press conference I had on the anniversary 
Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4 in my district, because 
we had been having these gun informational press conferences to raise 
the understanding, we have been working with a group by the name of 
Moms Demanding Action, thousands of moms across America, we were with 
them on Thursday, and then we were at the Lighthouse Church this past 
Sunday when Moms Demanding Action went to the pulpit, honored and 
recognized Pastor Henderson to talk about Moms Demanding Action to 
prevent gun violence.
  But this little school that I went to, I said to them that I would 
come and give their message on the floor of the House, that I would 
tell the President that I was in this school where these children are 
so bright, private school that it was, alongside a public school, these 
children spoke well about their fear of gun violence, the gun violence 
that they see around them and that they want to be in a place where 
they are safe, and guns they feel do not make them safe.
  So I got motivated, and I thank the Senators for informing me, a 
letter that I received March 22, 2013, from Senator Paul, Senator Cruz, 
and Senator Mike Lee, and they have now grown to 13 Senators. I know 
they have good hearts, but the language that I want to read 
specifically says:

       We will oppose a motion to proceed to any legislation that 
     will serve as a vehicle for any additional gun restrictions.

  You see, that's wrong in and of itself because we're talking about 
sensible gun legislation. I don't want to restrict anything. I would 
like to take that word out of the vocabulary of sensible gun 
legislation, because I will not restrict you from getting a gun if you 
pass a background check. I will not restrict you from having guns in 
your home, but I will hold you responsible for guns that are not locked 
up. I will not restrict you from hunting. I will not restrict you as a 
sportsperson. I will not restrict you for a legitimate concealed 
weapons permit, but I will restrict that dastardly person who went to 
the door of a Colorado corrections chief and shot him dead because he 
had a gun that he should not have because we don't enforce, which we 
should, but add to the idea of preventing straw purchases for that 
individual for getting a gun because someone purchased the gun for him. 
Mr. Speaker, that can be blocked.
  And the idea of storage, my friends, I'm talking about gun locks. 
Maybe somebody has a gun lock manufacturing company in their district. 
Just think what would happen if folks have to lock up their guns, at 
least the ones that are classic, the AR-15s or the assault weapons that 
you already have. No one is coming to get those. But the guns that the 
young man had in Newtown, if only they had been locked up. Many people 
don't speak of it, but I think she deserves to be mentioned, his 
mother, who I know had to be a loving mother. I know she cared. She 
recognized the disturbed individual that he was, and maybe it might 
have gone another way. Maybe there should have been some other response 
to his situation, but all you can say is that mother was trying. But 
look at her, dead in her bed. Guns that were open to someone who was 
challenged.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I can't imagine why we would ignore some of the 
numbers that I'm getting ready to share with you. But before I do that, 
let me raise again, if I can highlight what simple legislation that 
we're asking for: require universal background checks to keep guns out 
of dangerous hands. Let me be very clear: dangerous hands.
  Ban military-style assault weapons.
  Limit high-capacity magazines. That was the kind of magazine that was 
used tragically in Arizona. The individual could keep shooting and 
shooting, and the only way he was stopped was when he had to reload. 
Just imagine, 15 rounds, 20 rounds, no reloading. And the individual in 
Newtown, 155 rounds in 5 minutes before he stopped, taking the lives of 
so many.
  Let me share with you these statistics that impact urban loss of 
life,

[[Page 4829]]

rural loss of life, just the enormous tragedy. Take the incident of a 
rogue cop in California that wound up with weapons of war until he was 
finally caught, how many people he killed and how many more he could 
have killed. He had assault-type weapons.
  If you speak to the law enforcement community, particularly right 
after Newtown, people became gunned up to the extent that when I spoke 
to my law enforcement, they indicated to me that they couldn't even 
find any guns, that people had bought guns so, so much.
  Let me share with you some of these numbers about gun violence. First 
of all, the number of persons killed by guns since Newtown, 440 in the 
United States. I'm sure that number is down since the time these 
statistics were presented: 103 in Texas, 21 in Houston, 57 this month 
alone; 48,000 people killed annually in the United States. If I might 
remind you, over 1 million persons, Americans, have been killed by guns 
since John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., were assassinated.

                              {time}  2000

  So let me remind you of that list. John F. Kennedy, assassinated by a 
gun in 1963; Bobby Kennedy, assassinated by a gun in 1968; Martin 
Luther King, assassinated by a gun in 1968; and Ronald Reagan, 
attempted assassination in his first term, and the critical and 
devastating injury to his press secretary, Mr. Brady, who has committed 
himself to gun safety, again, not to take your guns away.
  I thank you, Mr. Brady. We have had an opportunity to work together. 
I thank you for what was done, and certainly your legacy of commitment. 
I thank that legacy.
  Then, of course, let me thank Mr. Bloomberg, who is one that has 
shown his passion, so much so that he has received criticism. Thank 
you, Mayor Bloomberg. Thank you for standing up and saying that those 
who would stop gun legislation that is sensible, that they have to have 
their story told to those around the country and those in their 
district, for we're not asking for anything. We're just asking for 
fairness, just an up-or-down vote.
  Let me share with you these numbers that I think are devastating. In 
1 year, on average, almost 100,000 people in America are shot or killed 
with a gun. In 1 year, 31,000--and this is from the Brady Campaign to 
Prevent Gun Violence--31,593 people died from gun violence and 66,769 
people survived gun injuries; 12,179 people murdered; 44,466 people 
shot in an attack; 18,223 people who killed themselves; 3,031 people 
who survived a suicide attempt with a gun.
  Let me just stop for a moment. How tragic it is that someone would 
think that the only way out of their misery is by a gun. And it is well 
known by these statistics that if a gun is near you, if you are near a 
gun, if you are near a gun, then that leaves you more open to using 
that gun for violence against others or violence against yourself.
  If you make it easy, rather than giving these people mental health 
services--which I think should go hand in hand with sensible gun 
legislation, and that's why I'm supporting a number of initiatives and 
cosponsored initiatives by Carolyn McCarthy, because it is important to 
find a balance and to be able to work on issues that would balance the 
needs of our community and mental health services, but also the needs 
of our community in being protected from gun violence.
  I want to restore the Centers for Disease Control's ability that was 
taken away a few Congresses ago by people who really don't understand 
sensible gun legislation. They stopped the Centers for Disease Control 
from doing the research and gathering the statistics on what violence 
does to America, what the medical cost is, what the psychological cost 
is. We want to reinstate that so that we can make important decisions.
  When I was with these children, one of the things that comes up in 
the idea of teen violence or the loss of life is that teens pick up 
guns 87 percent when they are bullied or when they feel someone has 
hurt them, said words to them, because the gun is accessible. They 
bring the gun to school, they have a gun, or they engage in gang 
violence.
  Don't separate gang violence and say it's just a bunch of 
gangbangers. It's gangbangers who are kids who have guns. And the young 
man that I brought to the State of the Union was a redeemed gangbanger, 
was shot at 15. He's here today, at 21, 22, about to get married, and 
shuns guns. But guns were accessible to him. He was already shot at in 
a drive-by. And then after he's shot at in a drive-by, then there was a 
point when they got him.
  Don't condemn the gangbangers. They've got guns that are trafficked, 
that are not enforced, that are straw purchased, and they come into 
places even that have strong gun laws. Why? Because we don't have 
sensible gun legislation.
  And yes, I'm going to agree with my friends on the other side of the 
aisle, my Republican friends. Let's enforce the gun laws that we have. 
Who would run away from that? That's a sensible proposition.
  Put a resolution on the floor of the House. Let's enforce the gun 
laws that we have. But join me in voting for universal gun background 
checks to close the gun show loopholes.
  I mentioned this idea of suicide, and let me just finish on this 
enormous, terrible number. How many of us have read articles, have seen 
over the last couple of days tragedies that have occurred that have 
been publicized nationally?
  All I can say is, you have a person who is disturbed, who has given 
up on life, who doesn't have a connection to faith, cannot find their 
faith leader, cannot get a hug from their family member, and all they 
think they can do is commit suicide, and they've got a gun.
  I venture to say there's probably very limited numbers of those who 
take a knife and stab themselves. And yes, there are pills. But they 
have a gun because nobody was there to stop them, they weren't able to 
get mental health services and they've got a gun. 592 people were 
killed unintentionally, and 8,610 were shot unintentionally but 
survived.
  There was one time in Houston where every time school was out, little 
ones, 2 years old, 3 years old, 4 years old, teenagers, accidentally 
shooting themselves, playing with a gun, taking the gun from under the 
mattress. Guns not stored.
  That's why we passed that legislation in Texas to hold adults 
responsible for a child that gets a gun and injures themselves, kills 
somebody, or kills themselves. That's the least we can do for our 
children.
  Over 1 million have been killed with guns in the United States since 
1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were 
assassinated.
  And then U.S. homicide rates are 6.9 times higher than rates in 22 
other populous, high-income countries combined, despite similar 
nonlethal crime and violence rates. The firearm homicide rate in the 
United States is 19.5 times higher.
  Mr. Speaker, we're not gaining anything by being gunned up. Among the 
23 populous, high-income countries, 80 percent of all firearm deaths 
occurred in the United States.
  On Thursday, not only should we get a vote, not only should there be 
no filibuster, but we should win that vote. Win it in the name of 
somebody in your congressional district that died unfairly because 
someone who should not have had the gun had it. And I can venture to 
tell you that background checks will have a sizable impact.
  Now, somebody said in 1994, when we passed the assault weapons ban, 
that it didn't do anything. Oh, there's a big debate. There's a tit for 
tat. But it is documented that the numbers of killings by assault 
weapons went down. Of course you can find other ways to kill people, 
but the utilization of assault weapons went down. That's a victory. 
That's a victory.
  When I had this listening session with my little ones at the Konia 
Learning Academy, we had pictures of these weapons. Do you know that 
these little ones that were pre-K could point out that these were 
machine guns? Little ones. What are we doing to our kids?
  They should call it a carrot because they've never seen one. With the 
violence on TV, we want to talk about

[[Page 4830]]

that, and violence around them, and the gun talk and the killings on 
national TV, what do you expect?
  Wouldn't it be nice if the headlines came out on Thursday, the Senate 
makes the first step, sensible gun legislation? Wouldn't that be good? 
That we came together and we did something that spoke to the anguish 
and pain?
  I was here for 9/11, a memory that none of us will ever forget. And 
the one thing that I will compare to what is happening with these 
families is the 
9/11 families. The Congress felt compelled, after its own mourning and 
the loss in the Pentagon and the loss in Pennsylvania, we just felt 
compelled that we had to do something, that the pain of these families 
scattered all over America, we had to answer them.
  We obviously suffered. I remember standing on the steps singing God 
Bless America. But we put away any opposition to issues that had to be 
addressed. We put forward a Patriot Act at that time that was 
bipartisan. We worked in the Judiciary Committee. We handled the 
privacy issues, because we felt that this was a time for America to 
shine.

                              {time}  2010

  Well, I believe this is the time for America to shine. Gun violence 
impacts society in countless ways: medical costs, in the cost of the 
criminal justice system, and security precautions such as metal 
detectors and reductions in quality of life because of fear of gun 
violence. These impacts are estimated to cost U.S. citizens--Mr. 
Speaker, you've got to get up out of your chair on this one--estimated 
to cost--with a smile on my face, because you stand up and I need to 
sit down because it's just knocking me down--a hundred billion dollars. 
And that was 2000. And so it's soaring in medical costs, in fear, in 
security.
  What are we going to do about the enormity of gun violence? Where 
there are more guns, there are more deaths. An estimated 41 percent of 
gun-related homicides and 94 percent of gun-related suicides would not 
have occurred in the same circumstances had no guns been present. 
Higher household gun ownership correlates with higher rates of 
homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings.
  Mr. Speaker, we have within our power to be able to move forward on 
sensible gun legislation. I will be asking my colleagues to join me in 
a letter to send to my friends on the other side of this body to be 
able to listen to our voices as fellow legislators. And then, as well, 
Mr. Speaker, I hope the voices of America will ring. I know that my 
phone will ring for those who are saying, They're snatching our guns 
away. And I'm going to have a smile on my face because they have a 
right to express themselves.
  But right now we need to put aside our individual political futures, 
because I believe that when you do the right thing, your future will be 
bright. And some child will say, Look at America. Look at the red, 
white, and blue. Look at the country that stands for values that we all 
are created equal. They didn't come to take away guns. They came to 
enforce good laws. They came to ensure that guns are not exploited, 
that loopholes are not walked through and become open caves, and that 
people are safer in their schools, their homes, their places of 
worship.
  Just think about that. A pulpit. Ministers in my State have been shot 
dead by guns of disturbed members--because they have guns. And let's 
make, Mr. Speaker, the mental health system a parallel effort to be 
able to ensure the safety of us all.
  Mr. Speaker, I am hopeful that this brief discussion--and if I may, 
how much time is there remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman has 27 minutes remaining.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Thank you very much.
  I'm so glad the Speaker was responding on that hundred billion 
dollars. It probably got him out of his chair. I think we're allowed to 
say those kinds of things on the floor.
  I will have a few more points that I do want to make. The number of a 
hundred billion dollars is certainly a lot, but I want to spend some 
time on this issue of gun trafficking and to speak about how gun 
trafficking can be something that we can find ways to come together.
  Gun trafficking is dastardly because in jurisdictions like 
Washington, D.C., strong gun laws; New York, strong gun laws; the State 
of Connecticut, strong gun laws; and now Colorado, strong gun laws. And 
my heart goes out to them for the loss that they experienced with the 
shooting of their head of corrections in a terrible manner, being shot 
on his doorstep. Also, the district attorney and his wife that were so 
loved and the other district attorney that was so loved that was shot 
here in Texas. That comes out of criminals with guns that they should 
not have. And so forcing a review of our gun laws to stop gun 
trafficking and to pass legislation that stands in the gap and that 
speaks to straw purchases--using someone else--and holding people very 
responsible for doing that is a smart way to go.
  The Mayors Against Illegal Guns have a very important point, and that 
is, when you pass the universal background check as a systematic way to 
stop felons, domestic abusers, and the seriously mentally ill, that's 
the answer to people that say it doesn't make a difference. Criminals 
and other prohibited purchasers can avoid background checks by buying 
firearms from unlicensed private sellers. That's the back of the trunk. 
That's the gun shows. Often at gun shows are anonymous online 
transactions.
  If my recollection is correct, the shooter at Aurora got his guns 
online. How tragic. And in the course of those shootings, we know that 
little ones lost their lives in that theater. What a terrible thing to 
come out for a joyous occasion, an exciting night, fiction but fun, and 
you lose your life and you never get home.
  I heard something today that I thought was important. Parents who 
sent their children to school that morning in Newtown were sending 
their children to school--it was December 14--with the expectation for 
celebrating holidays like Hanukkah and Christmas. They were looking 
forward to hugs and toys. They were looking forward to family dinners. 
They were looking forward to picking those children up at the end of 
the day. Mr. Speaker, they did not get a chance to do that.
  And so when you have background checks, certainly in the instance of 
Newtown, a different set of circumstances, both dealing with mental 
illness and the access to guns. But I tell you what it will do with 
background checks. It will lessen the horror of those involved in 
criminal activities.
  The private sale loophole undermines the background check system by 
allowing millions of buyers to avoid background checks simply by going 
to private sellers. We've got to fix that. And we've got to hold the 
data. We've got to make sure that our law enforcement can check a 
national data system so that those who would perpetrate violence cannot 
go from State to State.
  I know that I wanted to pass similar legislation on DNA data for 
child predators so that a person cannot go from State to State. Now we 
have the technology and we have the ability to protect rights. But if 
you are involved in criminal activity and you're in the database on 
guns, your rights are lessened because we have to save lives.
  The Internet has created a vast marketplace for guns, where millions 
of buyers and sellers can easily identify one another and conduct 
firearms transactions with no supervision whatsoever. Nearly 12 years 
ago, the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that there were 80 online 
auction sites and approximately 4,000 other sites of gun sales. No 
control whatsoever. The private sellers are literally involved in--
maybe not to their own choosing--those guns getting out into the arena 
and being utilized by others to do harm.
  So this is a time when we don't need a filibuster. What we need is a 
debate on the pros and cons of sensible gun legislation and, finally, a 
vote that would move us to respond to the pain of so many Americans.
  Why shouldn't this be a Democratic and Republican effort? Once the 
Senate

[[Page 4831]]

votes on something that has substance to it, why shouldn't our Speaker, 
Mr. Boehner, also put it on the floor and not block it? The reason is 
because there was regular order on the Senate side. It went through 
committee.
  But in the instance of Republicans, listen to a 2010 survey by 
Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who found that 82 percent of U.S. gun 
owners, including 74 percent of NRA members, support criminal 
background checks for all gun sales. What more do we want? What are we 
saying here? That we can't come together on a nonwatered-down gun 
background check?
  Let me speak to why I think that's so important. We have officers 
around here. This is like a little city. We have our Capitol Police. 
They wear the uniform. They're here to protect. Law enforcement 
officers all over America--school law enforcement officers, county and 
city, villages, departments of public safety, highway patrol, drug 
enforcement, ATF, FBI, men and women in the United States military--are 
here to protect. My friends from the Texas Air National Guard, my 
friends from the National Guard, they're here to protect.

                              {time}  2020

  What happens when they lose their lives through some untoward 
violence that's not on a battlefield somewhere, but right here in their 
own hometown? What happens when an officer has fallen because someone 
who shouldn't have a gun illegally has a gun, and we've done nothing 
about it?
  Close the gun show loopholes, stop the gun trafficking, and, most of 
all, get us universal access to gun checks and background checks. 
Everybody should be required.
  I know that we can't see these clearly, but there is a whole load of 
guns, and it says handguns offered by a private seller in Tennessee, 
handguns licensed by a licensed dealer--not checking anybody, though. 
You got the money, you can just show up. I remember walking into a gun 
show and seeing children walking around unaccompanied. I believe they 
should not be able to walk around at a gun show unaccompanied. Long 
guns being sold by a private seller in Columbus, Ohio. This is what's 
happening all over America. Probably right, as I'm standing on the 
floor of the House, that is what's happening. That's why I support 
Mayor Bloomberg and his commitment to this whole idea of sensible gun 
legislation. There are currently 18 million assault weapons in 
circulation, and I don't think most of them are in the hands of the 
United States military.
  I am just going to add these points and come to a close, Mr. Speaker, 
because this is what pushes the wrong direction; this parts us away 
from each other. We can't be friends. We can't talk about sensible 
legislation. And I hate to say it, I don't know how much carnage we 
have to see. I don't know how much we have to see, how many sirens we 
have to hear for those of us who live in urban areas, police cars 
running after ambulances because there's been someone that's been shot.
  What I would say to you is listen to the voice of a victim that I met 
just a couple of days ago. I just want to put this myth out. She was a 
teacher coming home late at night and somebody came up and said, get 
out of the car. She didn't know what to do. She didn't get out of the 
car. She bent down, and that person shot her in the legs. I asked the 
question, if she had a gun, does she think that she would be able to do 
better. She said, no, I was too scared; I wouldn't know what to do.
  My friends, don't fool yourself that having a gun is going to make it 
better for you. We've got to lessen criminals having guns; we've got to 
have background checks; we've got to close the gun show loopholes and 
people selling guns out of the back of their trunks on a highway 
somewhere outside of a gun show.
  More guns don't lead to more murders. This is myth number one. A 
survey by researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health 
found strong statistical support for the idea that even if you control 
for poverty levels, more people die from gun homicides in areas of 
higher rates of gun ownership. You've got a gun, you may be in 
jeopardy.
  The Second Amendment prohibits strict gun control. We all know that 
that is not supported by the Supreme Court and that we're not talking 
about taking guns away. We're talking about regulating guns. As many 
people have said, we regulate insurance. We ask you to have a 
registration and a driver's license for a car--that can be a deadly 
weapon--and we have you register it. And we have you have, if you will, 
a license.
  State-level gun controls haven't worked. Scholars Richard Florida and 
Charlotta Mellander recently studied State-to-State variations in gun 
homicides. They found that firearm deaths are significantly lower in 
States with stricter gun control legislation.
  Myth number four: we only need better enforcement of the law; we 
don't need new laws. We passed several laws. Yes, we need enforcement; 
but it is well known that you need to keep guns out of the hands of 
those who would do harm, and you need to have universal background 
checks in order to stop the criminals from getting guns, and you need 
to work on the mental health services so that those individuals cannot 
have guns. In some States they have that. We're not blanketing 
everyone; but in certain instances we need to be able to protect those 
individuals, protect their families from the crazed person, the violent 
abuser, the domestic abuser who goes and violates a restraining order 
and has a gun--because they just bought the gun because there's no 
background check. And you can't check if they have a restraining order.
  Sensible gun regulation is prohibitively unpopular. We've already 
heard of the large percentages from Republican pollster, Mr. Luntz, 
about the percentage of individuals--Republicans, all Americans, NRA 
members--who believe in universal background checks, not arming parents 
and arming, if you will, the teachers who are there to have a pencil 
and a pen and a chart and to talk about reading, writing, and 
arithmetic.
  So I am humbled today to have the opportunity to speak to my 
colleagues, but I am humbled by the fact that we live in a democracy. 
There is something called a ``filibuster''; it's a procedure that's 
used--not in this body--simply we've got a bunch of Members on the 
floor that talk, talk, talk, one after another. But we don't have the 
procedure; the Senate does. As I indicated, initially three of our 
friends, and now 13, I would ask them--and I would ask the minority 
leader--I would ask them not to engage.
  I would ask the other body to work with us. I would ask the other 
body to hear our cry. I would ask the other body to think of those who 
as we speak are being shot by a gun in America by someone who shouldn't 
have it. I'm asking them to think of the little children from one end 
of America to the other who were shot with a gun.
  For us Washingtonians--and I say that because I am in Washington a 
lot of the time here in the United States Congress--remember the sniper 
of a few years ago, the frightening atmosphere of a sniper, a young man 
and his father; guns they should not have had; killing innocent people 
along the highways and byways of this region. The sniper.
  That's what my message is today, that we have no time--no time--for a 
filibuster. We may have time for prayers. We may have time for 
encouragement. We have time for common sense. We still have time for a 
vote that will pass. And we have time for the House to take up sensible 
gun legislation.
  We still have time to save the lives of little babies. We still have 
time to save an innocent woman who may be subject to domestic violence. 
We still have time. We still have time to stop the gang-banger. We 
still have time to stop the criminal that may have come into your house 
or come into a bank or accost you on the street. We still have time to 
keep the guns out of their hands. We still have time.
  Who is going to answer the cry to stop the filibuster and stop the 
foolishness? I ask my colleagues: If it is not us, then who? If it is 
not now, then when? In the memory of John F. Kennedy, President of the 
United States of

[[Page 4832]]

America; in the memory of his brother, Bobby Kennedy, former Attorney 
General of the United States of America; Martin Luther King, in his 
memory, a man of peace and nonviolence; and President Ronald Reagan, 
who lived, if it is not in the common sense of those leaders of our 
Nation and the needs of the children and families across America, then 
whose voices will we heed?
  There is still time for commonsense legislation, and I might say that 
we should demand, stand up for a vote on this Thursday. I hope our 
voices--not mine, but our voices--are heard.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank you for allowing this time to debate on the 
floor of the House, and I yield back the balance of my time.


                                                  U.S. Senate,

                                   Washington, DC, March 22, 2013.
       Dear Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, We, the 
     undersigned, intend to oppose any legislation that would 
     infringe on the American people's constitutional right to 
     bear arms, or on their ability to exercise this right without 
     being subjected to government surveillance.
       The Second Amendment to the Constitution protects citizens' 
     right to self-defense. It speaks to history's lesson that 
     government cannot be in all places at all times, and 
     history's warning about the oppression of a government that 
     tries.
       We will oppose the motion to proceed to any legislation 
     that will serve as a vehicle for any additional gun 
     restrictions.
     Rand Paul, M.D.,
     Ted Cruz,
     Mike Lee.

                          ____________________