[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19813-19814]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            AN AMERICAN HERO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Garrett) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, 47 years ago, August 11, a baby boy was 
born to a mother and father in Detroit, Michigan, named Brian Terry.
  Some 18 years after that, Brian made a commitment to serve his 
country by enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, where he served 
3 years honorably, including a tour of duty in harm's way in Iraq.
  Discharged from the Marine Corps honorably in 1994, Brian Terry 
followed his calling to serve by becoming a police officer. He then 
made another commitment not to serve just his community, but our 
Nation. In 2007, he joined the Customs and Border Protection.
  But this wasn't good enough for what his mother characterized as a 
brave, strong defender of people. Brian decided to join the elite 
Border Tactical Team of the Border Patrol unit.
  Seven years ago today, Brian was part of a four-person team tasked 
with pursuing and apprehending a ``rip'' crew. This rip crew has been 
alleged to be affiliated with the Mexican drug cartels. What they did 
was exploit those who took advantage of the unwillingness of those in 
leadership in this country to perform that basic, principled 
responsibility, which is to secure our borders.

                              {time}  1300

  The rip crew would rob drug mules as they carried drugs across the 
border, but would also routinely detain and shake down those who snuck 
through our porous borders. This cartel-affiliated rip crew had 
weapons, and they used those weapons to rob, terrorize, and exploit in 
the worst possible ways people who were essentially invited here by our 
failure to do our jobs.
  Seven years ago today, Brian Terry and three of his colleagues set 
out not just to protect our border, but to protect innocent people, who 
came with their entire life savings, because we chose to leave that 
border porous.
  Yesterday, the House Homeland Security Committee took up H.R. 4433. 
H.R. 4433 is entitled Securing DHS Firearms Act of 2017. We learned 
during testimony on this bill that in a 2-year period, just over 200 
firearms were stolen from people who worked for the Department of 
Homeland Security, or lost. At least one person was killed by these 
firearms. I would concur that that is unacceptable.
  I certainly support the bill, but having served in the United States 
Army as a leader of soldiers on deployment, all of whom were issued at 
least one weapon, I wonder if it literally requires an act of Congress 
to suggest that the DHS promulgate regulations to oversee the loss or 
theft of DHS supplied weapons.
  Yes, over 200 weapons is horrible. Yes, one life lost is horrible. 
But should there be an act of Congress?
  Because, as I recall, as a leader in the army while deployed 
overseas, we had protocol for dealing with lost weapons, with lost 
sensible items, and with lost COMSEC. We didn't need an act of Congress 
to tell us to promulgate it.
  While I support this bill, it began to make me wonder and then think 
of a Bible verse, Matthew 7:3:
  ``Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and 
pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?''
  Certainly it is unacceptable that over 200 weapons should be lost or 
stolen from DHS employees in a period of 2 years. But it is, quite 
literally, one-tenth of the scale of the weaponry that our government 
intentionally put into the stream of commerce to be used by those who 
would visit harm not only on their neighbors and family members south 
of our border, but right here on our own soil.
  So, weapons like this, to the quantity of over 200, were lost or 
stolen from members of DHS. Meanwhile, 7 years ago, weapons like this 
were put into the stream of commerce by our very government. Weapons 
like this took the lives of at least one person. Weapons like this, put 
into the stream of commerce by our very government, have taken, at the 
very least, 70 times as many lives.
  Yesterday, the Committee on Homeland Security promulgated a bill--an 
act of Congress--to address 200-some weapons like this that have cost 
at least one human life. And 7 years after Brian Terry set out on 
patrol that fateful night in Arizona, days before he was to fly home to 
Michigan to see his family for Christmas, nobody is talking about the 
weapons like this that our government intentionally placed into the 
stream of commerce, where we knew, to a metaphysical certainty, they 
would go to those who would do harm to their neighbors and their 
families and Americans.
  Seven years later, we have seen justice. The killers of Brian Terry 
have been arrested. The first man arrested for having shot Mr. Terry in 
the back with a military-style rifle, leaving him to bleed to death in 
the medical chopper that flew him out in an effort to save his life, 
had, I think, ironically, already been deported from this country seven 
times.
  The night that Brian Terry set out to protect not only the borders of 
this Nation, but the people who seek to enter it because we will not 
uphold our responsibility, the man who killed him was about robbing the 
very people who were coming here because we allowed it by not doing our 
jobs, and he had already been deported seven times.
  Now, we know that close to 70 people have died because we 
intentionally, as a nation, put into the stream of commerce military-
style weapons. In fact, we have lost track of over 1,400 of the over 
2,000 weapons that the Obama administration thought it would be a good 
idea to intentionally let go to Mexico.
  The weapon pictured next to me is a Barrett M-82 .50-caliber anti-
personnel and -materiel rifle. There are Members of this body who have 
spoken on how this weapon should be illegal because, conceivably, it 
can take down an airplane.
  Why do I digress?
  Because that weapon was recovered in the hideout known to be used by 
the most notorious murderer in North America in the last 100 years: El 
Chapo Guzman.
  The United States Government watched while a weapon that some Members 
of this body would suggest can take down an airplane was trafficked to 
a man who is trafficked in death to the point where the next slide I 
show will blow any thinking person's mind.
  Many of the 160,000, roughly, deaths of civilians in Mexico can be 
traced directly back to this man. And we know, because it was 
recovered, that at least one of the military-style weapons that he 
received came from us.
  So, 7 years ago today, an American hero named Brian Terry, who had 
served as a law enforcement professional, as a marine in Iraq, and on 
the

[[Page 19814]]

elite border tactical squadron, set out to protect America, but to also 
protect those who sought to enter it, whether legally or illegally. 
And, when he did so, he did so understanding fully, as those who take 
an oath to defend this Nation do, that some things in this world are 
worth standing, fighting, and dying for. And, tragically, 7 years ago 
tonight, Brian Terry made that sacrifice.
  I had no intention of standing and speaking on this today until H.R. 
4433, the Securing DHS Firearms Act of 2017, came before the Homeland 
Security Committee yesterday, but it struck me as ironic. Not only did 
I serve in uniform as a combat arms officer for nearly 6 years, but I 
spent just under 10 years as a prosecutor, and I have a passion for a 
number of things, but foremost among these is justice.
  So while it gives my heart some condolence, I can't begin to imagine 
the feelings on the 7th anniversary of the family members of this 
American hero, knowing that, while the people who pulled the trigger 
have been convicted, the weapons that they used were provided to them 
by the very Nation that he died to protect.
  Mr. Speaker, with that, I would submit this: I have faith that in 
life or after life, there will always ultimately be justice.
  I will tell you this: In the case of those who, with intent, put the 
firearms into the hands of the individuals who took the life of this 
American hero, I hope that justice comes in this life and not the next.
  So, while we move about our business of promulgating laws to dictate 
to the DHS that they should have a policy to address the loss of 
firearms, I hope we don't take our eye off the ball of the very 
firearms that we intentionally trafficked, like the two that were 
recovered from the scene of the murder of Brian Terry, and that we will 
continue until we find it to seek justice for this man and act in a 
manner such that there are no more Brian Terry tragedies going forward.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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