[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10174]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           PASS GUN SAFETY LEGISLATION AND GIVE D.C. THE VOTE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, anyone who thought the Democrats would go 
away after we were driven to a sit-in on the House floor for gun safety 
legislation learned differently very soon after we got home on 
Wednesday, June 29, when events were held all across the country on a 
National Day of Action for Gun Violence Prevention. We served notice.
  Yes, there have been moments of outrage and sometimes we have not 
kept up the battle unceasingly. Watch us this time.
  I am very pleased that our very effective police chief, Cathy Lanier, 
came with me to a roundtable where we heard not only from her, but from 
residents of the District of Columbia who have experienced the 
incredible heartache and throbbing agony of the loss of a loved one to 
gun violence.
  This morning, unstimulated by me, parents organized themselves to 
come to the Capitol at 9 a.m. They call themselves D.C. Moms and Dads 
for Rational Gun Safety Legislation. They are a group of spontaneously 
formed District of Columbia parents who lack voting representation in 
the Congress, although they pay the highest taxes per capita of any 
Americans. They do not have the final vote on the House floor, and they 
have no Senators.
  They wanted to come and show their support for national gun 
legislation to prevent gun violence in our city and our country. They 
came when, the week before, I had just fought off three amendments in 
the House Rules Committee to undermine D.C.'s gun laws with an attempt 
to erase some of those laws.
  It is interesting that, in the Rules Committee, I was able to keep 
those Republican amendments to take away our gun laws from being made 
in order. I think it is because the Rules Committee took place only 
days after Orlando, and even Republicans didn't have the nerve to 
authorize gun legislation so close to the Orlando gun massacre. Is that 
what it is going to take? Or will it take the persistence that you saw 
when Democrats had no alternative but to sit on this hard floor just 
before recess?
  Now, the Republicans have gotten the permission of the NRA to include 
a gun bill in a pending bill. No wonder, it makes things worse. Now you 
would have to go before a judge before you can get someone off the no-
fly list, instead of depending on the slow administrative process, you 
would go through the much slower judicial process. Thank you for 
nothing. It certainly won't satisfy us or the American people.
  We who live in your Nation's Capital, need national gun legislation 
to keep guns from flowing in from weak gun jurisdictions, and we need 
Congress to leave our gun safety laws alone.
  Without fail, every single year, I have to drive back attempts to 
overturn our gun laws. I just described three that were in the Rules 
Committee before we left that I was able to drive back because of 
Orlando.
  Yes, I am proud that the Nation's Capital has the strongest gun laws 
in the country, as well it might. Controversial world figures walk our 
streets and visit our restaurants. Weak gun laws we do not need in this 
Capital.
  We have effective enforcement. We have good relations among Chief 
Lanier and her police force and our residents. But we are still at the 
mercy of a Congress, which will not do its job.
  During our House sit-in, I left the floor to go to a press conference 
held by the Mayor and the police chief, displaying AK-47s and other 
guns illegal in the District of Columbia but that you can simply go to 
a gun show and buy, undermining our gun laws.
  Our gun problem in cities like ours and many cities and jurisdictions 
across the country are not local problems. They are a national problem. 
That is why you see us demanding universal background checks. That is 
why we are demanding that Congress stop censuring the CDC from studying 
gun laws.
  I thank the moms and dads and kids who marched to the Capitol today 
for overriding their denial of a vote to come here. You sent a dual 
message: pass gun safety legislation, and give D.C. the vote.

                          ____________________