Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker indicated that you have to ask the government to exercise your constitutional right. That is the problem. What happened in Charleston was terrible, it was wrong, and wrong as wrong can be. But this bill is not going to stop--the FBI had 2 months. It didn't do it. It didn't stop this guy. They had 2 months.

What this bill does is shift the burden. It takes it from 3 days to 10 days, and the burden now becomes on the American citizen to be able to exercise their constitutional right. That is not what the Second Amendment is supposed to be about. Unfortunately, it is where the Democrats want to take our country.

Mr. Speaker, the FBI tells us, in a 4-year time period, 18,000 people who exercised their Second Amendment liberties to get a firearm who were denied got that reversed. Those are just the ones who went there and said, ``You know what, you guys screwed up. It is not really me.'' They had to work it out.

Mr. Speaker, 18,000 times, the system screwed up. In 2017, over 112,000 people were denied, but only 12 people were prosecuted, which means that, most likely, thousands of law-abiding people were falsely denied their right to exercise their Second Amendment liberty.

Now what do Democrats want to do? They want to say: Wait a minute. That all happened in a 3-day time period. We are going to extend that for 10 days because we know the government bureaucracy will get so much better in 10 days. We know it will work out if we just give them more time to screw up more things.

That is what is going to happen. Oh, by the way, that single lady who needs to protect herself, she is going to have to wait longer now for a system that had this many screwups to get the firearms she needs to exercise her Second Amendment liberties to protect herself and her family. That is what this legislation does.

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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker used the term ``reasonable.'' This legislation shifts the burden, so you are now telling an American citizen the burden is on you to exercise your Second Amendment liberties. They deny the background check, deny you your ability to purchase a firearm, and the burden is on you.

Mr. Speaker, I would think that a professor of law would understand that you don't shift the burden when you are talking about a fundamental liberty that we enjoy under the Constitution. It doesn't seem reasonable at all to me.

Earlier, we had a couple of the folks who spoke on our side. Earlier they said the Second Amendment is right next to the First because it is pretty darn important. I think some of our folks said that.

But it struck me that, you know what, I don't know that the other side actually cares all that much about the First Amendment.

Think about what has happened this past year. Democrats have told Americans they can't go to church, can't go to work, can't go to school, can't go to a loved one's funeral.

Of course, the rules never apply to them. We had a Governor of one of our largest States--a Governor of our largest State--out at a 5-star restaurant, having dinner with friends and lobbyists at the same time he is telling folks in his State that they can't even have Thanksgiving dinner with their family.

We see the attack on free speech. I mean, just to laugh at this whole cancel culture phenomena. First it was Kermit the Frog and the Muppets, then it was Dr. Seuss. I think yesterday it was cartoon characters from the Looney Tunes. Tack on your right to speak, specifically to speak in any type of political nature.

We have had Democrat Members of Congress, Mr. Speaker, send a letter to carriers, asking those carriers not to have certain news networks on their system. That is frightening. You talk about chilling speech. That is as scary as it gets--just because they don't like what is being said on certain news networks? Scary.

And now they are coming after your Second Amendment liberties as well. I mean, think about your First Amendment rights, your right to practice your faith, your right to assemble, your right to petition your government, freedom of the press, freedom of speech. And then the very next right the Founders mention, your Second Amendment liberties, they are coming after that, too.

It wasn't enough to go after your right to practice your faith. It wasn't enough to go after your right to assemble and be with people you wanted. Think about some of the things we saw this year. We had Democrat leaders in States telling Americans you had to be in your home at a certain time with curfews. You had to be in your home by 10.

We had another State say, when you are in your home, you have to wear a mask. And then we had States say, well, when you are in your home, you don't have to wear a mask because you are not allowed to have anybody over.

Government was limiting your First Amendment right to practice your religion, your First Amendment right to assemble. And now they are coming after your First Amendment right to speak and speak in a political nature. And here we are today, coming after your Second Amendment liberties.

The Democratic Party is the party that says defund the police, open the border, attack people's Second Amendment rights to defend themselves while they are defunding the police and opening the border, and all the while they are undermining American's First Amendment liberties as well.

This should frighten everyone.

This should frighten everyone. This should frighten everyone wherever they want to go. It is scary. I certainly hope we defeat both of these bills today when they are offered.

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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I oppose both bills and the amendments for all the reasons we have stated today. I think my colleague from Pennsylvania said it best. We are now going to have to wait 10 days to exercise your Second Amendment rights.

One of the previous speakers, Madam Speaker, on the Democrat side said that felons don't get guns. They are felons. They are not going to follow the law.

We all know what this is. This is going to make it more difficult for law-abiding Americans to exercise a fundamental liberty guaranteed in the United States Constitution, the second right they have, the Second Amendment to the Constitution. It is going to make it more difficult for them to exercise their fundamental liberty. That is what this is about.

The FBI had 2 months in the Charleston situation to get it right. They couldn't. Somehow we think now extending it from 3 days to 10 days, a system that messed up as much as it has, somehow that is going to help, and then shifting the burden so that if this system that has falsely denied people their right to purchase a firearm, time and time again, if the system does it again, the burden is on you.

Since when do we ever do that? When are you presumed guilty by the government? Only now. Only now are you presumed guilty. You are not going to be able to exercise your rights.

Those are our concerns with both of these bills and the amendments that are in front of us today.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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