Debate Gun Control Legislation

Floor Speech

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Ms. PINGREE. Mr. Speaker, we should not be here today.

We should not have to come to the floor of the House of Representatives to beg the majority party just to debate and vote on commonsense gun legislation that the vast majority of Americans demand. We should not be living in a society where debate and even scientific research about gun violence are stifled and silenced by the majority in Congress, and we should not live in a country where gun violence takes such a toll on our citizens.

But here we are, standing up for the millions of Americans who want Congress to do something and honoring the thousands of Americans who have lost their lives to gun violence. Here we are, standing up for our constituents who are tired of the excuses and want to hear a debate and want to see us take action on gun violence. And here we are today to represent the victims.

The list is so long: Orlando, San Bernardino, Newton, Fort Hood, Charleston. The list goes on. Nine in a church, 23 in a restaurant, 26 in an elementary school, and now 49 in a nightclub. The victims are men and women, Black and White, rich and poor, old and young.

At a McDonald's in California, an 8-month-old baby was killed, along with his mother who was trying to shelter him when a gunman came in and started shooting.

At a North Carolina nursing home, a 98-year-old grandmother was killed when a shooter came in and opened fire.

Here in the United States, you are 10 times more likely to be killed by a gun than in any other developed Nation in the world. Of the 23 richest and most developed countries in the world, we have, by far, the most gun violence. We have half the population of the other 22, but 90 percent of the women killed by a gun are killed by a gun in the United States. Ninety-one percent of the children under age 14, who are killed by a gun, are killed by a gun in the United States. And if you are a young person in this country, you are 50 times more likely to die of a gun death than in all of those other countries. We have the most guns and we have the most gun violence.

Mr. Speaker, we have the NRA. Through fear, intimidation, and misinformation, the NRA has taken control over the debate on guns to such an extent that we cannot even vote in this Chamber on whether we should keep guns out of the hands of terrorists.

Right now, someone can be on both the terrorist watch list and the no-fly list. In other words, the FBI thinks you are a terrorist and the TSA bans you from flying, but if you want to drive down to your local gun store and buy an assault rifle, there is nothing anyone can do to stop you.

Over the last 10 years, people on the terrorist watch list tried to buy explosives or firearms 2,233 times. Over 90 percent of the time, they were successful. This is wrong. The American people know it is wrong, public health officials know it is wrong, and nearly every single law enforcement association in America knows it is wrong, which is why they are all in favor of closing the terrorist gun loophole. In fact, a recent poll by a Republican pollster found 76 percent of gun owners and 71 percent of NRA members said suspected terrorists should not be allowed to buy guns.

If you were to walk outside the House of Representatives right now and stop someone walking down the street and ask the simple question: Should terrorists be allowed to buy guns, you would get a very simple answer. They would say: No, of course terrorists should not be allowed to buy guns.

But they can. Republicans here in the House won't even let us have a debate and a vote on it.

How did we get here, Mr. Speaker? How has the debate shifted so far away from commonsense gun regulation that a proposal to close the terrorist gun loophole is this controversial? Why is it that, here in the House, debate is silenced and we are not allowed to vote?

The closest we came to a debate on gun legislation recently came last week when a controversy erupted about the standard procedure to observe a moment of silence on the House floor after a mass shooting.

Mr. Speaker, it is shameful that we have allowed this country to get to a point where Congress has to even have a standard procedure to observe mass shootings, yet we aren't even allowed to have a debate about legislation to address this problem.

It is time for us to stand up to the NRA, to have a fair and open debate about gun violence, and it is time for all of us to do our job representing the American people.

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