[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10170]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WE ARE ASKING FOR A VOTE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Larson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, we come to the floor early 
this afternoon knowing that later this day we have a meeting with the 
Speaker. It is our goal and our hope that the Speaker will provide an 
opportunity for the minority party to have its two votes taken up in 
this Congress.
  We prevail on the good nature of the Speaker and know him to be an 
honest and forthright man and an institutionalist who understands the 
House. We also know that he is not just Speaker for the Republican 
Conference, but he is indeed Speaker of the entire House.
  We face an extraordinary calamity, a catastrophe unlike anyone has 
experienced in any other country in the world, and it is the ongoing 
slaughter that occurs. There have been more than 1,000 mass murders 
since the tragedy at Sandy Hook when they took, as Senator Joe Manchin 
said, our babies from us.
  What we are asking for on this side of the aisle are very commonsense 
solutions; no fly, no buy. If you can't get on an airplane because you 
are a terrorist but you can buy a gun, doesn't it seem as though there 
should be regulations that would prevent that and keep guns out of the 
hands of terrorists, criminals, and the mentally challenged?
  Also, there are background checks, which most law enforcement 
entities have talked about on the very bill that Senators Pat Toomey 
and Joe Manchin introduced in the United States Senate that received 
the majority of votes and that Representatives Peter King and Mike 
Thompson introduced in the House of Representatives.
  We are asking for a simple vote. After all, that is what we are 
elected to do. We are elected to represent the people whom we are sworn 
to serve and cast votes.
  It has been more than 3\1/2\ years we have not even been allowed to 
cast a vote in the House of Representatives. That is why so many took 
to this floor in an organic movement demonstrating that we have had 
enough and that we deserve a vote and that we demand a vote for the 
countless victims and families of these tragedies.
  It is not enough, as respectful as it is, to stand for a moment of 
silence. Our caucus will not be silent anymore. We feel that silence 
means you are complicit with these ongoing tragedies.
  So we have asked for two pieces of legislation, both commonsense and, 
oh, by the way, supported by--no matter what poll you read--between 85 
and 95 percent of the American public. They are not controversial.
  All we are asking for is the decency to perform our constitutional 
responsibility in representing our constituents and to have the ability 
to cast the vote that they are all asking for. We are prevailing upon 
the decency of the other side, their understanding of the Constitution, 
their understanding of the rules of this House. We are counting on 
their decency for the families and the victims to allow us those simple 
measures that we swear an oath to this office in order to perform.
  We are asking you for a vote. It is nothing more than what is 
required of us when we raise our hand and take the oath here. To deny 
us of that is to deny us of our basic rights.

                          ____________________