Americans Want Congress to Pass Meaningful Gun Legislation

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, Americans want Congress to pass meaningful legislation that will actually keep guns out of dangerous hands.

So what is our majority doing?

They are bringing up a bill that was not only drafted by the gun lobby, but that makes it nearly impossible to block gun sales to suspected terrorists. That is shameful.

The American people deserve a Congress that is willing to stand up to the gun lobby and do what it takes to help keep our communities safe. Congress has a responsibility to listen to the people who we are supposed to represent, to put partisan politics aside, and to bring up commonsense, bipartisan legislation to keep guns away from those who shouldn't have them: suspected terrorists, criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill. And the American people want those bills brought up now.

More than 30 people are killed every day by someone using a gun. We can't afford to allow more innocent lives to be lost to gun violence.

Just a few weeks ago, 49 innocent people were shot to death in the worst mass shooting our country has ever seen. Sadly, this isn't an insulated case. It has now been 3\1/2\ years since the tragedy at Sandy Hook took the lives of 20 elementary school kids and six educators, but for reasons that I will never understand, that horrific tragedy wasn't enough to convince the Republican leadership that something-- something--needs to be done to prevent the next tragedy.

Let me give you some numbers:

Three and a half, that is how many years it has been since Sandy Hook; 34,000, that is the number of people who have been killed by someone using a gun since Sandy Hook; 1,182, that is the number of mass shootings that have taken place since Sandy Hook; 520, that is the number of days the House has been in session; 30, the moments of silence that we have observed on this House floor because of gun violence.

Most important, zero. Zero. That is the number of votes that this House has taken to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

What is the majority so afraid of? Is their fear greater than the fear of those young kids at Sandy Hook, or those parishioners in Charleston, or those young people at the nightclub in Orlando?

It is long past time for the House to give us a vote on meaningful legislation to make sure that terrorists, criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill don't have easy access to guns in our country.

There is bipartisan legislation that would prohibit those on the FBI's terrorist watch list from being able to purchase firearms, and I have authored legislation, which has bipartisan support, to require background checks for all commercial gun sales. Background checks are our first line of defense when it comes to stopping dangerous people from getting firearms. They work. Every day more than 170 felons, some 50 domestic abusers, and nearly 20 fugitives are stopped from buying a gun because of background checks. But in 34 States, criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill can bypass the background check by purchasing guns online, at a gun show, or through an ad in the paper. This is a dangerous loophole that needs to be closed, and it needs to be closed now.

The bill has 186 bipartisan coauthors. Bring our bill up for a vote. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should oppose this background check bill. Not only is it bipartisan, it respects the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

I am a gun guy. I own guns. I support the Second Amendment. If this bill did anything to violate those rights, my name wouldn't be on it.

All this background check bill does is require that folks pass a background check before purchasing guns online, at a gun show, or through an ad. Plain and simple. It does nothing to infringe on the Second Amendment right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms.

This debate on background checks isn't a choice between either protecting the Second Amendment or reducing gun violence. It is about the willingness of a responsible majority to do both. If there is one thing we should all be able to agree on, it is that suspected terrorists, criminals, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill shouldn't have guns.

Mr. Speaker, give us a vote. Bring up H.R. 1076: bipartisan, effective, no fly, no buy legislation. And bring up H.R. 1217: bipartisan background check legislation.

Mass shootings followed by moments of silence and no action cannot become America's new normal. We need to vote, and we need to vote now.

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