[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10178-10179]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         NO MORE EMPTY GESTURES

  (Mr. HUFFMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, the whole point of the Democratic sit-in to 
demand congressional action on gun violence was to say that empty 
gestures and moments of silence for 30 seconds, followed by the bang of 
a gavel and resumption of business as usual will not

[[Page 10179]]

be tolerated anymore in the face of this national gun violence 
epidemic.
  Yet this week, our Republican colleagues are bringing forward a bill, 
written and blessed by the NRA, that is yet another empty gesture--a 
glorified moment of silence--because it establishes a completely 
arbitrary and artificial 72-hour timeframe and unreasonable standards 
that must be met within that timeframe.
  I can't get my dry cleaning back in 72 hours, yet the NRA and our 
Republican friends expect the Attorney General to come forward, serve 
process, have a defendant hire an attorney, show up at a hearing, and 
prove with probable cause as the standard that this individual is about 
to commit an act of terror? Give me a break.
  No more empty gestures. No more moments of silence that are 
completely disingenuous, including this glorified moment of silence 
that Republicans are bringing forward this week.

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