The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. And I thank this body for still continuing the tradition of this opportunity to speak and have our voices heard, even though we are in the minority.

We don't control the floor, we can't put our bills on the agenda to have a debate, and often we can't even get an amendment considered on the bills. The Rules Committee strips out anything that would materially change a bill. Sadly, that has been a bipartisan approach to governing in this body. That is not a functioning legislature when those kinds of things happen.

Why is that important?

Every Member needs to have their voice heard, and they should be heard on the bill. They should be heard when this body wants to change our constitutional protections fundamentally. The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The majority doesn't seek to amend the Constitution, but they seek to nullify that constitutional guarantee with subterfuge.

They say that this is a background check bill. Well, every commercial firearm transaction today already requires a background check. It doesn't matter whether you do it at a gun store, at a gun show, or at any other forum, if you buy a firearm from a commercial seller of firearms, a Federal firearm license holder, you have to do a background check. You can't do it, Mr. Speaker.

Now, what does this do?

It basically says, Mr. Speaker, that if you want to even loan a gun to a family member to go on a hunting trip, then you have to get a background check. Someone would be criminalized for doing that. You can't have private transfers. Essentially, the government says you can't be trusted to sell a firearm to anybody. You have to go to a licensed agent of the Federal Government.

How do they guarantee that?

They guarantee that by creating a registry.

Why should we be concerned about that?

Well, that is the path toward seizing it. It doesn't guarantee that the Government will do it, but let me tell you about the Supreme Court and what is going on right now, Mr. Speaker.

Under the Fourth Amendment, there is a clause that has been interpreted by Court opinions to allow seizures for community care-- warrantless seizures of property. This goes with civil asset forfeiture and all kinds of abuses of warrantless surveillance and the Fourth Amendment. If we do not stand up and defend the Second Amendment today, it will be just as abused as the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of privacy is today.

We have to oppose this bill. The people of the United States of America are constitutionally guaranteed the right to keep and bear arms, and this body shall not infringe it, and it shall not be infringed without a constitutional amendment, and that is not what is on the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to oppose H.R. 8 and any such effort to deny the American citizens the protections our Constitution guarantees.

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