Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. First, let me commend the Senator for this extraordinary and principled discussion that the Senator has led, along with Senators Blumenthal and Booker.

I do have a question, and it stems from some of the comments I have received from the Chief of Police in the State of Rhode Island, Colonel Steven O'Donnell, a skilled professional. What Colonel O'Donnell said-- and it goes to one of the issues that Senator Whitehouse discussed, the access to high-capacity magazines for these assault weapons. Colonel O'Donnell said:

I've yet to hear a viable argument for high capacity magazines, what the purpose is. I have friends that are hunters. They use high capacity weapons, but not magazines. They use several rounds to hunt, but they don't need 15, 30, and 45 round clips to hunt an animal.

Is that some of the responses you are getting from some of your law enforcement professionals who deal every day with firearms?

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Mr. REED. The Senator continually references military-style assault weapons. Frankly, I had the privilege of commanding paratroopers, and we were armed with M-16s, which is an AR-15 military variance. It was clear to us--and this was 30 years ago--these are military weapons. These are weapons that were designed to mass fire, rapid fire, even in semiautomatic mode. These were not designed for hunting. In fact, back in those days, we replaced the M-14--which didn't have the same capabilities, much more accurate--because what they were looking for was just a sheer volume of fire that can inflict the most casualties possible, particularly in confined spaces, because of woods, because of jungle, because of war, because you are in a building.

I think your points about military assault weapons are exactly the right points, and you, like me, have heard this not only from law enforcement professionals but also from military personnel about the nature of this weapon.

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Mr. REED. The Senator also commented, and I want to reconfirm it, that one of the characteristics of these weapons is that even in semiautomatic mode, there is a high rate of fire, and the velocity of the rounds are such that they inflict extreme damage. So even if it is in a semiautomatic mode, you have the ability to deliver devastating fire, and coupled with a large magazine, you can keep this fire up.

The other point is that changing the magazine on one of these weapons is a matter of seconds. It is not a laborious task where you have to individually load rounds into the weapon. That, too, I think increases the lethality.

Again, if the Senator would comment and concur, the adoption by the military had a logical military purpose--to increase the lethality of the weapons that we are giving to the soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen of the United States. That is not, I don't think, what you and I would like to see in our civilian population--weapons for which the primary purpose is increased lethality. It is not accuracy, necessarily, not for a skill in terms of marksmanship, but simply increased lethality. Is that the sense that you have?

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Mr. REED. Will the Senator yield again for a question?

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Mr. REED. Essentially, what our adversaries are doing is exploiting loopholes in our law, and they are doing it very deliberately, very consciously. To date, we are standing by and letting them do that. They know where the weak points are. The weak points are not only that you can get these assault weapons, but another point is that a significant number of weapons were sold without a background check because they can be done through the Internet, through gun show sales, et cetera. We have taken this issue on before, and we failed to address those issues too.

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Mr. REED. I have one final question for the Senator. It would seem to me that this would essentially deny our fiercest adversaries, the Islamist jihadists who are using the Internet to radicalize people--not only to radicalize them but, without directly controlling their conduct, suggesting to them the way they can get assault weapons legally in the United States and can arm themselves. If we take these steps, as you would suggest, we can deny our fiercest adversaries the arms they seek to inflict harm on our families, our friends and our neighbors.

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