Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, there is no gun violence problem from legal gun owners. And this bill, as well as the prior bill, will do nothing to stop gun violence because it unnecessarily regulates law-abiding citizens. And we don't have to define that term, I would think, because they are not criminals.

The problem is with criminals. And because criminals could care less about the bills we are talking about today, innocent people will die.

I can think of neighbors of mine out in the country where I live, who have an ex who would want to cause violence to them. That lady could come to me and say: I can't get a gun because I have got to wait 10 days, but he could come this weekend. Would you loan me a gun?

Mr. Speaker, what we are doing today wouldn't allow that. This lady is put at severe risk.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to consider what they are doing. This will not work. Vote against H.R. 1446 and support the Second Amendment made by people sometimes wiser than us.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WALBERG. Madam Speaker, I sit here and listen to my colleagues, and that is what I want to do; but I become more frustrated with the fact that I think, Madam Speaker, we are in parallel universes.

We are talking about gun crime. We all agree that gun crime is wrong. We all agree that the murders that go on with gun crime are horrendous and we don't want them to continue. But they are not happening as a result of law-abiding gun owners.

We have background checks now that work. I have gone through those myself. We have dealt with them.

I grew up on the south side of Chicago. I love Chicago. It pains me to see that become the murder center that it has become. And now I hear the report that the reason it is this is because people from Chicago can come to Michigan, buy illegal guns, and bring them back, that is the fault.

No, it is a heart problem.

It is a problem of criminals who are not being prosecuted.

We have FBI who don't follow the background checks and don't do it in a timely fashion. We have a Justice Department that doesn't prosecute gun crimes. And we blame it on law-abiding citizens.

What we will do today--as we have attempted other times--is to put law-abiding citizens under the gun--and I use that word specifically-- further who will not commit a crime, but have to go through onerous legislation that allegedly makes more transparent gun laws that stomp on the Second Amendment liberties that we have.

Madam Speaker, that is wrong. That is wrong, and it will not end the gun problem. We have had a War on Poverty for years and poverty has increased. Government programs don't work.

Madam Speaker, I appeal to my friends on the other side of the aisle: I know your hearts are right, but this won't do the job.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source