OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building

Floor Speech

Date: June 24, 2022
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank God for the decision that stops the heinous practice that has taken more than 60 million lives in this country over the last 50 years. I thank God that those voices that have been lost, we will not see that anymore. I hope and pray that that is the case. I thank them for that.

There is no right to take that life, but there is a right to defend yourself. We have a God-given, constitutionally protected right to protect ourselves, and the Supreme Court reaffirmed that yesterday.

This bill infringes on the constitutionally protected rights of law- abiding Americans, and it provides funding for States to infringe on Americans' Second Amendment rights and violate their due process rights.

It treats 18-, 19-, and 20-year-old Americans as second-class citizens. The Ninth Circuit recently held that the Second Amendment applies to 18-, 19-, and 20-year-old Americans just like it does to Americans over the age of 21.

This bill criminalizes routine gun transactions between law-abiding Americans.

Justice Alito, in his concurrence, highlighted the flawed logic used by the supporters of this bill. Alito said: ``Does the dissent think that laws like New York's prevent or deter such atrocities? Will a person bent on carrying out a mass shooting be stopped if he knows that it is illegal to carry a handgun outside the home? And how does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop that perpetrator.''

The essence of this is gun controls do not stop criminals because criminals have no regard for the law. That is the definition of a criminal.

This bill will restrict law-abiding Americans' ability to purchase firearms and protect themselves and their families. It violates a basic God-given right.

Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill and urge my colleagues to do the same.

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