Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building
Floor Speech
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1204, I call up the bill (S. 2938) to designate the United States Courthouse and Federal Building located at 111 North Adams Street in Tallahassee, Florida, as the ``Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building'', and for other purposes, with the Senate amendments to the House amendment thereto, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.
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Mr. NADLER. 2938.
Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not comment on the decision of the Supreme Court, just minutes ago, to revoke the constitutional right to abortion, a right that millions of Americans have relied upon for half a century.
Worse, Justice Thomas has indicated that this is merely the beginning of a radical, rightwing effort to roll back other rights, including the right to contraception, the right to marry whomever we choose, and the fundamental right to privacy.
We should observe that the same Justices telling us today that questions about reproductive rights must be left to the States, told us just yesterday that the States cannot be trusted to regulate modern firearms, weapons that were never dreamed of by the Framers of the Second Amendment. History will prove these activists wrong on both counts.
But today, Mr. Speaker, we take a historic first step toward ending the epidemic of gun violence in this Nation, the only developed Nation with this problem.
We come to this moment after the tragic loss of so many innocent lives: 10 African Americans in Buffalo, targeted because of their race; 19 young students and 2 teachers in Uvalde, just a few days short of their summer vacations; scores more lost in other mass shootings too numerous to mention; and over 100 more Americans killed every day in gun violence that never makes the headlines.
No piece of legislation can ever bring these lives back. No legislation can make their families or their communities whole. But we can act to keep others from facing the same trauma they have endured.
A few weeks ago, I was proud to bring forth the Protecting Our Kids Act, which took a bipartisan and comprehensive approach to ending gun violence. I am pleased that the Senate incorporated portions of that bill into their own legislation.
I wish there was more. I wish we could say we were doing everything we could to prevent another parent from losing their child to gun violence, but I am proud to be making an important start today.
This cannot be the last step, but we also cannot let another day go by without taking action to make our communities safer and to keep even one more family whole.
Recently, I have turned to a particular teaching in the Talmud:
Whoever takes one life, it is as if he kills the entire world; and whoever saves one life, it is as if he saves the entire world.
This legislation includes provisions that will save many lives. Like the Protecting Our Kids Act, it includes funding to implement extreme risk protection laws and the prohibition on straw purchasing. It also strengthens background checks for those under 21, makes more sellers responsible for conducting background checks, takes steps to address the boyfriend loophole, and provides significant funding for programs that will make our communities safer.
Today, we will send legislation to the President's desk, for the first time in decades, that will make progress toward ending the scourge of gun violence.
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Mr. NADLER. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker of the House.
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Mr. NADLER. Jackson Lee), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I stand here in the name of Mr. Garza, whose daughter in Uvalde bled out, Buffalo, Tulsa, Parkland, Santa Fe, and Sandy Hook. I stand here with the recognition of my chairman, Mr. Nadler, and the years and decades--mine, over two decades--of fighting for gun laws.
As I hold up the number of gun laws that I introduced over 27 years-- pages and pages--I can say to the Senate that in this bill, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, they have built on our legislation.
My bill, the Mental Health Access and Gun Violence Prevention Act, which will increase access to mental health treatment, is in this bill. The Violence Against Women Act, the boyfriend loophole, is in this bill. The Protecting Our Kids Act and the issues dealing with raising the age, bump stocks, and ghost guns are yet to be done, but we can stand on this because it was bipartisan.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a list of gun violence prevention legislation. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas Gun Violence Prevention Legislation 117th Congress
H.R. 127--Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act
H.R. 2585, ``Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Reauthorization and the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act''
H.R. 121--Grin Violence Reduction Resources Act of 2021
H.R. 125, Gun Safety: Not Sorry Act of 2021
H.R. 130, Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safe Storage Act
H.R. 135, Accidental Firearms Transfers Reporting Act of 2021
H.R. 137, Mental Health Access and Gun Violence Prevention Act of 2021
H.R. 133, David Ray Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2021 116th Congress
H.R. 49, Santa Fe High School Victims Act
H.R. 4080, Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safe Storage Act
H.R. 4081, Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act
H.R. 4082, Accidental Firearms Transfers Reporting Act of 2019 115th Congress
H.R. 57, Accidental Firearms Transfers Reporting Act of 2017
H.R. 62, Gun Violence Reduction Resources Act of 2017
H.R. 1982, Mental Health Access and Gun Violence Prevention Act of 2017
H.R. 1983, David Ray Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2017
H.R. 4268, Gun Safety: Not Sorry Act of 2017
H.R. 5088, No More Atrocities with Guns Act or the No MAGA Act
H.R. 7016, Protect Lives and Stop the Imminent Chaos Act of 2019--the PLASTIC Act 114th Congress
H.R. 4315--Mental Health Access and Gun Violence Prevention Act
H.R. 4316--Gun Violence Reduction Resources Act
H.R. 47--Gun Storage and Safety Devices for All Firearms Act
H.R. 3125--Accidental Firearms Transfers Reporting Act
H.R. 5470--Stopping Mass Killings by Violent Terrorists Act
H. Amdt. 48 to H.R. 5 Student Success Act
H.R. 68--Tiffany Joslyn Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Program Reauthorization Act of 2016 113th Congress
H.R. 65, Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2013
H.R. 2665, To ensure secure gun storage and gun safety devices
H.R. 2585--Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Reauthorization and the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act of 2013 112th Congress
H.R. 4315, Mental Health Access and Gun Violence Prevention Act of 2016
H.R. 4316, Gun Violence Reduction Resources Act of 2016
H.R. 65, Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2013
H.R. 2665, To ensure secure gun storage and gun safety devices.
H.R. 227--Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2011
H.R. 83--Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act of 2011
H.R. 5770--Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Reauthorization and the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act
H.R. 6019--Juvenile Accountability Block Grant Reauthorization and the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act of 2012 111th Congress
H.R. 257--Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2009
H.R. 6542--Bullying Prevention and Intervention Act of 2010 110th Congress
H.R. 256--Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2007 109th Congress
H.R. 246--Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2005 108th Congress
H.R. 76--Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2003 107th Congress
H.R 70--Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2001
H. Amdt. 187--107th Congress 106th Congress
H.R. 3987--Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2000
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, people are dying every day, and it is obvious that through the legislation--The New York Times said here are the shootings, pages and pages, that could have been stopped by stricter gun laws.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, this article has the mass shootings where stricter gun laws might have made a difference.
We understand that this legislation is only the concrete beginning. My friends are going to attack that, but the American people are 70 percent for banning various weapons that are assault weapons. They are 70 percent and more for extreme risk protection. They are 70 percent and more for understanding that we need an extended time for purchase of these guns. And, yes, they are supporters of the Kimberly Vaughn Safe Storage Act, which is a storage bill that says that we need to get people to prevent suicide and to store their guns.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 2938, the ``Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.''
America is experiencing a crisis of gun violence.
In America, gun violence threatens our sense of safety and security everywhere we go: where we shop for groceries; where we worship with our families; and where we enjoy movies, dancing, outdoor festivals, and concerts with friends.
I and many other members of Congress have introduced commonsense gun safety legislation to make communities safer--over and over, year after year, Congress after Congress. Until now, we have been unable to pass any meaningful legislation.
After more than twenty years of drafting and repeatedly introducing gun safety legislation, like my bill, the Mental Health Access and Gun Violence Prevention Act to increase access to mental health treatment and promote reporting of mental health information to the background check system, I am encouraged by the steps we are taking today but wish we did not have to lose so many lives to reach this point.
For years, I fought to close the boyfriend loophole--most recently in the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2021, which passed the House last year.
Finally, through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we will ensure abusive dating partners convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence offenses are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms for at least five years.
Two weeks ago, this body proved to the American people that a compromise could be reached on sensible gun safety measures when we passed the ``Protecting Our Kids Act.'' That legislation, which I introduced along with Chairman Jerry Nadler and Representative Mike Thompson, encompassed decades of our hard work and proved to be the catalyst for the bill we are considering today.
Like the Protecting Our Kids Act, this bill would establish new federal offenses that specifically prohibit gun trafficking and straw purchasing to thwart guns moving through the iron pipeline, keeping them off the street and out of the hands of criminals.
While our bill would have raised the age at which a person could purchase a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21--a concept I proposed in my No More Atrocities with Guns Act of 2018--this bill would enhance the background check process and investigative period for purchases of rifles by anyone under the age of 21 and further strengthen the background check process by clarifying who is engaged in the business of selling firearms and, as a result, is required to run background checks.
We also passed the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2021 recently that would give loved ones the ability to seek an extreme risk protection order before our federal court when an individual presents a serious threat to themselves or others by use of a firearm and provide funding to enhance, promote, and implement similar laws at the state- level, which Safer Communities will do.
With the passage of this bill, we make a significant step forward in the fight to end gun violence. But we must keep working to find reasonable solutions to other problems that contribute to gun violence in this country that are not addressed in this bill.
We must ban deadly bump stocks, ghost guns, and high-capacity magazines as we endeavored to do in the Protecting Our Kids Act. We must ban assault weapons.
We must institute a seven-day waiting period for purchases of the deadliest of instrumentalities such as silencers and body armor, which I have pressed for in my own bill, the Gun Safety: Not Sorry Act of 2017 and 2021, and assault weapons if we do not ban them.
We must pass legislation that encourages safe firearm storage practices, like my bill the Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safe Storage Act that was included in the Protecting Our Kids Act to expand the requirement that safe storage devices be made available at the point of sale, which will train new gun owners on the value of safe storage and remind seasoned gun owners that safe storage goes hand-in-hand with responsible gun ownership.
23 years after Columbine when I first began introducing gun safety legislation, and hundreds of thousands of gun deaths later, we continue to mourn the unnecessary loss of life. Enough is enough.
While this bill may not solve all the problems that contribute to the epidemic of gun violence, we must pass it without delay. Far too many lives have been lost for us to wait any longer.
I support this meaningful, bipartisan legislation and urge my colleagues to do the same. Let us save lives and protect the children of America--together.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act would inject $4.5 billion in critical funding into various state agencies and programs through the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Education to:
Expand community mental health services for children and families, and fund school-based mental health services and supports;
Implement evidence-based school violence prevention efforts; and
Encourage and support evidence-based, community violence intervention programs and crisis intervention services, including the implementation of vital Red Flag Laws--which have been proven to reduce the firearm suicide rates in states that have already enacted such laws.
In America, gun violence is the leading cause of death among children. In America, an average of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month. In America, mass shootings occur increasingly each year--and every day, 316 people on average are shot. In America, 45,979 deaths were by suicide in 2020--more than half of those deaths were by firearm.
Each day parents send their children off to school, from elementary age to college, praying now more than ever that they will return to them safe and sound.
19 elementary school-aged children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas; 10 people going about their daily lives at a market in Buffalo, New York, all killed by 18-year-olds wielding AR-15-style weapons of war. And 4 people murdered at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma with another assault weapon purchased only hours earlier.
In my home state of Texas, the El Paso Walmart shooting--22 dead; Sutherland Springs--26 dead; Santa Fe High School--10 dead; Fort Hood in 2009--13 dead; and the Dallas shooting of police--5 officers dead and nine others injured.
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Mr. NADLER. Lofgren), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, when the previous speaker refers to using guns to protect tyranny, he is talking--whether he realizes it or not-- about stopping tyranny by turning those weapons against American troops.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time remains on each side.
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Mr. NADLER.
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Mr. NADLER. Kelly).
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Mr. NADLER. Sherrill).
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Mr. NADLER.
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Mr. NADLER. Clarke), from the great Empire State.
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a proud New Yorker deeply troubled by the epidemic of gun violence that has plagued our Nation for too long, leaving a wake of sorrow and grief that extends from generation to generation.
I cannot overstate how yesterday's reckless and detrimental Supreme Court ruling that struck down a 100-year-old New York State law puts innocent Brooklynite lives at risk.
What is more, there are no gun manufacturers in New York City. Yet, despite removing thousands of guns from our streets, illegal guns are arriving by car, train, and bus every single day through the Iron Pipeline.
That is why today's vote on the Safer Communities Act is an imperative. It addresses the issue of straw purchasing and the gun trafficking that is prevalent across New York City.
Let me take this opportunity to thank and give honorable mention to Congresswoman Robin Kelly and Congresswoman Lucy McBath for their courageous and unwavering fight to stop this sea of gun violence in our Nation.
Mr. Speaker, we must pass commonsense gun legislation, and I am proud to vote ``yes.''
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on each side, please?
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Mr. NADLER. Leger Fernandez).
Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding time.
Across this country, we shed tears for the children who are killed, for the parents who are killed, for the girlfriends who are killed.
In this Chamber, we shed tears for the parents and the fathers who are killed, for the children and the sons who are killed.
But we cannot only grieve. We cannot only give our tears. We must act, and today we get to act. Today is the first step toward addressing the pandemic of violence and suffering at the loss of life to guns, to gun violence.
New Mexico already has passed similar laws. We believe in protecting our children. We believe in protecting our women. Those who oppose this law clearly do not.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus understands that Latinos are too often killed by guns, but today, today, we act. I stand up in support of this action because not acting is an insult to the vast majority of our constituents who want this.
Mr. HIGGINS of New York. Mr. Speaker, the leading cause of death of kids in America is now gun violence.
Mr. Speaker, 110 Americans die every day in America because of gun violence.
Five weeks ago, ten people from my community of Buffalo, New York, were shot dead by a white supremacist who planned an attack, drove 300 miles to Buffalo and a Black community of our city.
There was a retired police officer by the name of Aaron Salter. A 30- year veteran of the Buffalo Police Department, he was working security that day.
Someone once said that the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Officer Aaron Salter was a good guy with a gun, but he didn't stand a chance. He didn't stand a chance because he was outgunned and outequipped.
Our police officers in America, in Buffalo, and throughout the country are outgunned by the bad guys. They are outprotected by the bad guys.
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Mr. NADLER. Chu).
Mr. Speaker, the difference between this country and other countries is only that in this country do we have mass shootings and mass murders of children. No other country has them.
We know from the experience in New Jersey, as Ms. Sherrill told us, that when we pass strong gun control legislation, we can greatly reduce the number of children and adults shot.
We hear from the other side of the aisle, ``No, we don't want to do that.'' They are right: This legislation is the beginning.
This legislation is not perfect. It is a bipartisan compromise. It is not nearly what we should do. It is not nearly what the House did, but it is a beginning. It is a beginning in saving lives in this country.
Anyone who stands in its way is standing in the way of saving lives in this country. I will not allow myself or anyone I associate with to stand in the way of saving lives, many lives.
Again, I remind you, this is the only country that has it, and it is not because we have more mentally ill than other countries. It is because we do not have the gun control laws that other countries do.
Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to vote for this bill as a good beginning, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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