[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 202]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      GUN CONTROL EXECUTIVE ORDERS

  (Mr. CARTER of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of every 
American's Second Amendment rights.
  The recent announcement by President Obama to unilaterally enact gun 
control laws once again shows his complete lack of leadership and a 
complete disregard for Americans' fundamental rights. The President 
should be working with Congress to enact legislation, not creating 
executive orders because things don't work out his way.
  The fact is that the President's executive actions would not have 
prevented a single mass shooting over the past several years. One of 
the main underlying causes of many of these shootings was mental 
illness, and I will be the first to agree that we should dedicate 
efforts to address mental illness in this country.
  However, directing millions of dollars in new investment for mental 
health care is not the role of the President. That is the role for 
Congress.
  If our Founding Fathers wanted to restrict the right to bear arms, 
they would have written it into our Constitution. If our Founding 
Fathers wanted an executive fiat government, they would have created 
one.
  I call on my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to stand up 
for this institution and protect what our Founding Fathers fought and 
died for: a Republic elected by the people, for the people; a country 
that is not controlled by one man, but by many.

                          ____________________