Providing for Consideration of H.R. Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate what it is we are trying to do by defeating the previous question and bringing up commonsense, pro-Second Amendment, gun violence prevention legislation.

We don't think that terrorists, criminals, or the dangerously mentally ill should have easy access to firearms. We believe that we should do everything possible to make sure that terrorists, criminals, and the dangerously mentally ill can't get their hands on firearms. That is why it is so important to pass the no fly, no buy and to pass the background check legislation.

We know that background checks work. Every day, 170 felons are prevented from buying a gun because of the background check, and 50 domestic abusers are prevented from buying a gun because of the background check. That is every day. The bill that we are talking about expands the background checks to include all commercial sales.

As the gentleman from Massachusetts just explained, there are loopholes. In some States, you can go online and buy a gun without having a background check. In some States, you can go to a gun show and buy a gun without having a background check. That is absolute foolishness.

Now, we are not talking about requiring family members to do background checks. We are not talking about requiring your next-door neighbor to do a background check. We are not talking about requiring your hunting buddy or your shooting buddy to get a background check.

We are talking about gun sales through commercial sales--gun shows, newspaper ads, online sales--because we know it works. It is our first line of defense against the criminals, terrorists, and the dangerously mentally ill from being able to easily access firearms.

It was once explained that the Federal Government set up a system to screen these folks to make sure that the criminals, the terrorists, the domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill didn't get firearms. What they said is, if you buy it from a licensed dealer, you have to have a background check, but if you buy it from a gun show or if you buy it online, you don't have to have one.

The juxtaposition has been made that this is a lot like setting up a screening system after 9/11 that says that all passengers have to go through a metal detector so they don't bring guns, knives, and explosives on the airplane, but only 60 percent of you have to do that. The other 40 percent can go around--you can get on the airplane with whatever you have in your pocket. Then you choose which one goes in the 40 percent line and which one goes in the 60 percent line.

It doesn't make sense. We need to have background checks to make sure that criminals, that the dangerously mentally ill, that domestic abusers, and that terrorists don't get their hands on weapons.

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I can't believe that our friends on the other side of the aisle want criminals, terrorists, and the dangerously mentally ill to have easy access to firearms. As a matter of fact, there was an amendment on this floor that beefed up the funding for the system that checks on the background checks, and 76 Republicans voted to increase the funding by $20 million--a $20 million funding augmentation to the NICS system. Now you are telling us, ``Well, we supported the funding, but we don't want people to use the system.'' That is an out-and-out waste of taxpayer money.

Not bringing these bills up is an out-and-out shameless ordeal on the part of the leadership. You need to bring these bills to the floor. We need to have a vote. We need to do everything we can to make sure our constituents are safe--safe in places of worship, safe in the movie theater, safe in school. We need to make sure that we do all we can to keep our constituents safe. Bring it up for a vote.

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