[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12658-12659]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          VOTE ON GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, on July 14, Republican 
leaders recessed the House for 7 weeks without taking a single vote on 
legislation to help keep Americans safe from gun violence.
  Ignoring an issue that you don't want to deal with doesn't make it go 
away. House Republicans desperately need to learn that lesson. When 
Republican leaders in the House refuse to deal with gun violence, the 
American people pay the price.
  During the 7 weeks that the House was in recess, 2,015 people were 
killed by someone using a gun. Thousands of families across our country 
have spent the last 7 weeks grieving.
  While Republicans are putting their fingers in their ears and 
pretending that our country isn't in the grips of a gun violence 
epidemic, innocent people continue to die. What makes this inaction 
even harder to accept is the fact that, for over 3\1/2\ years, I have 
had bipartisan, pro-Second Amendment legislation that would help make 
these tragedies less common.
  My bill would close a dangerous loophole in our background check 
system that allows criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously 
mentally ill to bypass a background check in 34 States when purchasing 
guns online, at a gun show, or through classified ads.
  Background checks are our first line of defense when it comes to 
making sure that dangerous people don't purchase guns. We know that, 
when used, they work. Every day, background checks stop more than 170 
felons, some 50 domestic abusers, and nearly 20 fugitives from buying a 
gun. But, sadly, this gaping hole allows those same felons, domestic 
abusers, and fugitives to easily bypass a background check when buying 
firearms.

[[Page 12659]]

  H.R. 1217 has 187 bipartisan coauthors and 90 percent of the American 
people support strengthening and expanding our background check system.
  Mr. Speaker, let us have a vote on this bill. Gun violence shouldn't 
be a partisan issue. When deranged gunmen open fire in a nightclub, 
movie theater, or school, they don't care if you are a Democrat or 
Republican. Together, we can build a country in which all Americans 
feel safe being who they are, having fun in a nightclub, going to 
school, seeing a movie, going to Bible study, an office party, or 
simply walking down the streets of their own neighborhood.
  Mr. Speaker, let us do the work the American people sent us here to 
do. Let us vote on the legislation they want to see enacted. Let us 
vote to keep our fellow Americans safe.
  Each day the Republican majority drags its feet and refuses to give 
us a vote on bipartisan, pro-Second Amendment bills to help keep guns 
out of dangerous hands, more innocent lives are lost.
  Give us a vote. And give us a vote now, before you recess for another 
break.

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