Gun Violence

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Garamendi for his consistent, persistent leadership in these Special Orders to put forth issues of concern to the American people.

Right now, we are talking about saving lives. We are talking about responsible background checks on gun purchases as well no fly, no buy. If you are on the terrorist list, if you can't fly, then you shouldn't be able to buy a gun. What is so difficult about that for our Republican majority to understand?

Actually, on the background check legislation, we are talking about expanding the background check bill that already exists to include Internet sales, something relatively new--not new compared to when we passed the bill in the middle nineties--and we are talking about gun shows. This would save lives to have background checks on everyone who is there to purchase a gun.

Eighty-five percent of the American people support responsible legislation for background checks, which is what we are proposing, and 90 percent support no fly, no buy. The only place where there is an obstacle to this reasonable commonsense legislation is on the floor of the House of Representatives.

I am so proud of our Members led by John Lewis 2 weeks ago, tomorrow, who led the sit-in on the floor of the House. It was remarkable, and it generated interest throughout the world--over 2 billion impressions from what went out from the floor of this House--something remarkable, something appropriate for the people's House. Then, following that, for this to go on for 25 hours and then to continue over the weeks when we were in recess into our districts, to have the beat go on. Now we are back, and the beat will continue to go on.

I think if there is one message of hope that John Lewis gave all of us, it is that we are not going away until the job is done.

So, respectfully, I ask our Speaker of the House to give us a vote, to enable us to show the support that commonsense, sensible gun safety legislation has in this House. I believe that, if given the opportunity, this House would support that legislation. Maybe that is why it will not be brought up.

But I will also associate myself with the concerns expressed by Mr. Garamendi about a bill, the Cornyn bill. I think it has a new name in the House. It is the gun lobby bill--the gun lobby bill--the NRA bill. It is not a gun safety bill. It is an excuse for not doing something really effective and sensible.

So you will be seeing the stories of the people and the families affected, the most eloquent stories of all, their stories of their loss, and they are channeling their grief to make sure it doesn't happen to other families. What a beautiful sense of community.

We thank John Lewis for being the unifier in all of that, and we thank all of our Members for their participation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi).

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