[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8691-8692]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           WE ARE ALL ORLANDO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I went 
down to the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York City, where 
the modern gay rights movement really began.
  I went there to leave some flowers in honor of those members of the 
LGBT community who lost their lives in the massacre--the worst mass 
shooting in American history--at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
  While I stood there in solidarity with a somber crowd of allies and 
members of the LGBT community, it occurred to me that, just as the 
events at Stonewall were a turning point in the gay rights movement, 
this horrific attack in Orlando may serve as a turning point of its own 
because it is time for all of us to stand up together and say: Enough. 
We will not be silent. This madness must end.
  And make no mistake, it is utter madness that a man with a history of 
domestic violence, a man who had been investigated by the FBI for his 
possible ties to terror, could buy an assault weapon as easily as he 
could buy an aspirin.
  In the Pulse massacre, this man armed with an AR-15 military-type 
assault rifle, a weapon that he bought legally, killed 49 people and 
injured 50 more.

                              {time}  1100

  Earlier, at an elementary school in Connecticut, another madman with 
an AR-15-style assault weapon killed 26 children and their teachers. 
And in a theater in Aurora, Colorado, one man with one AR-15 assault 
weapon killed 12 and wounded 70.
  In each of these mass casualty events, it took one gun and one man to 
brutally take so many innocent lives. In each case, the gun was an 
assault weapon.
  Assault weapons are designed to do one thing very well, and that is 
to kill people very rapidly. They aren't used for hunting. They aren't 
used for self-defense. They are used as weapons of war.
  So why is it so easy for people to purchase them and hurt others?
  That is why, in 1994, three United States Presidents--President Ford, 
President Carter, and President Reagan--all signed a letter to the 
House of Representatives calling for a Federal ban on military-style 
assault weapons. I will place their meaningful letter into the Record.
                                                      May 3, 1994.
       To Members of the U.S. House of Representatives: We are 
     writing to urge your support for a ban on the domestic 
     manufacture of military-style assault weapons. This is a 
     matter of vital importance to the public safety. Although 
     assault weapons account for less than 1% of the guns in 
     circulation, they account for nearly 10% of the guns traced 
     to crime.
       Every major law enforcement organization in America and 
     dozens of leading labor, medical, religious, civil rights and 
     civic groups support such a ban. Most importantly, poll after 
     poll shows that the American public overwhelmingly support a 
     ban on assault weapons. A 1993 CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll 
     found that 77% of Americans support a ban on the manufacture, 
     sale, and possession of semiautomatic assault guns, such as 
     the AK-47.
       The 1989 import ban resulted in an impressive 40% drop in 
     imported assault weapons traced to crime between 1989 and 
     1991, but the killing continues. Last year, a killer armed 
     with two TEC9s killed eight people at a San Francisco law 
     firm and wounded several others. During the past five years, 
     more

[[Page 8692]]

     than 40 law enforcement officers have been killed or wounded 
     in the line of duty by an assault weapon.
       While we recognize that assault weapon legislation will not 
     stop all assault weapon crime, statistics prove that we can 
     dry up the supply of these guns, making them less accessible 
     to criminals. We urge you to listen to the American public 
     and to the law enforcement community and support a ban on the 
     further manufacture of these weapons.
           Sincerely,
     Gerald R. Ford.
     Jimmy Carter.
     Ronald Reagan.

  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. That same year, I voted for a 
Federal Assault Weapons Ban signed into law by President Clinton that 
also banned massacre-sized magazines. Unfortunately, this ban expired 
in 2004, and Congress, under pressure from the NRA, has since refused 
to reauthorize it, even when facts show that reauthorizing it would 
save lives.
  It should come as no surprise that, of the 10 mass shooting incidents 
in the United States, 7 of them involved the use of an assault-style 
rifle.
  That is why I fully and wholeheartedly support the commonsense 
proposal to reinstate a Federal ban on the sale and manufacture of 
assault weapons and massacre-sized magazines, and that is why so many 
Members of Congress have introduced--on both sides of the aisle--
commonsense gun reform bills.
  And let's be clear. These measures are not some kind of assault on 
Second Amendment freedoms for hunters or those who wish to have a gun 
for self-protection. The assault ban is a limited, commonsense measure 
to help keep people safe.
  It is time for us to stand up together and to pass these commonsense 
bills because this time #WeAreAllOrlando.

                          ____________________