Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Nadler for yielding, and I also thank Representative Clyburn, the author of this legislation, H.R. 1446, for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, domestic violence claims the lives of far too many, and it is especially deadly when it occurs in a household with a gun. Women, as we know, bear most of this violence.

In the United States there are one million women alive today who have reported being shot or shot at by an intimate partner, and there are many more who have been threatened or killed with a gun. And we haven't even yet discussed what the additional stressors of COVID-19 have done exponentially around the country in households when there is a gun in the household.

Closing the Charleston loophole is a critical step to prevent abusers from obtaining a weapon. This is not about infringing upon anyone's Second Amendment rights. Law-abiding gun owners who are duly licensed and permitted, this is not about preventing them from being able to have a gun.

This is a critical step to prevent abusers from obtaining a weapon, a weapon that will likely be used to escalate their abuse and a weapon that may have deadly consequences. And as a survivor of gun violence, I know what I am talking about.

With this bill and with this amendment we can help prevent abuse, protect our families, and gather data to inform further steps to keep every American safe. That is our right. That is not a privilege.

In the next months, we will continue to remember those that we have lost to gun violence in Charleston and all across America.

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