[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 37]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FIREARMS PROPOSAL

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, time and again this President has noted 
that we can't change the law without action from Congress. Despite his 
claimed familiarity with the separation of powers, this week we see the 
President again trying to go around Congress to enact already-known 
antigun policies that have already been considered and rejected in the 
Senate.
  The President's plan ignores what any honest observer already knows: 
limiting the rights of law-abiding Americans doesn't deter criminals 
and terrorists from breaking our laws.
  Forcing Americans to jump through more hoops and spend more money to 
exercise their Second Amendment rights will, at best, have zero effect 
on public safety and, at worst, embolden those who already disregard 
our laws.
  Finally, let's look at what the President's proposal boils down to. 
More Americans would have to pay more to the Federal Government in fees 
to exercise their constitutional rights. Enforcement of current laws 
could have a much better effect on that, yet we see very few red flags 
that are put up by people trying to legally purchase guns that are 
already felons. More investigations would be held and more people 
prosecuted if those laws were enforced, yet our attorneys general at 
the State level and Federal level don't follow up on those red flags.
  We have plenty of laws on the books that are not enforced. We don't 
need more. We certainly don't need executive orders that the President 
is illegally putting across behind closed doors, which has been 
emblematic of what the entire Obama administration has been doing for 
the last several years to our constitutional rights.

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