[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10179-10180]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          BIPARTISAN ACTION TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE IS NEEDED

  (Ms. ESTY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ESTY. Mr. Speaker, the American people expect us to act to 
protect them. We need a tough and smart counterterrorism strategy to go 
after ISIS, and that has to include taking commonsense steps to keep 
guns out of the hands of terrorists.
  In a 2011 propaganda video, an al Qaeda spokesman encouraged radicals 
to buy guns in the United States, saying: America is absolutely awash 
in obtainable firearms.
  The overwhelming majority of the American people support reasonable 
fixes to prevent terrorists from buying guns and to expand background 
checks for all commercial gun sales. Yet, in the 3\1/2\ years since the 
tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the House has not held a 
single vote on legislation to prevent gun violence. In that time, gun 
violence has killed more than 100,000 Americans.
  It took a 25-hour sit-in and thousands of Americans rising up and 
demanding

[[Page 10180]]

a vote, but here we are finally voting on something. It is a step 
forward. Unfortunately, the bill we are voting on this week was written 
by the gun lobby, and it won't do anything to keep guns out of the 
hands of dangerous individuals.
  So let's keep working. Let's send bipartisan legislation to the 
President's desk, because the American people are demanding action. We 
should listen and we should act.

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