[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19604]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                     RENEW THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN

  (Mr. CICILLINE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, just hours before last week's shooting, 
I stood in this very same spot and called on Congress to renew the 
assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.
  Shortly after the shooting in San Bernadino, we learned that one of 
the weapons used was an AR-15, capable of unloading 800 rounds per 
minute or 13 rounds per second. Just a week earlier, a gunman in 
Colorado Springs used an AK-47-style weapon.
  We need to get these weapons of war out of the hands of terrorists 
and criminals. It is easy to say criminals and terrorists will always 
find a way to get a gun, but certainly we don't need to make it easier 
for these individuals to get guns capable of killing dozens of innocent 
people within seconds.
  There are simple steps we can take today to address this issue 
without denying a person's Second Amendment rights. We can start by 
making sure someone convicted of a violent crime can't buy a gun by 
exploiting a loophole and prevent someone on the terrorist watch list 
from buying a gun. If you are too dangerous to get on a plane, you are 
too dangerous to walk into a gun store and buy an assault weapon or any 
other gun.
  We need to start somewhere to address this epidemic if we have any 
hope of reducing gun violence in this country. Getting assault weapons 
out of the hands of criminals and potential terrorists is a good place 
to start.

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