Assault Weapons Ban of 2022

Floor Speech

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1808, which is just the latest gun-grabbing bill Democrats are dangerously ramming through in their unconstitutional crusade to disarm America.

The ink is barely dry on the anti-gun bill from last month, and here they are pushing another anti-gun bill that proclaims to make us safer but does the exact opposite. It puts citizens at greater risk by taking away the rights of the law-abiding.

This legislation takes aim at our Constitution by banning what the Democrats call assault weapons, which is a vague political term used as a catchphrase to make the public think we are banning guns that assault people. But the truth is that the bill would ban the most popular semiautomatic rifle in America, the AR-15 and what the industry calls a modern sporting rifle.

The Democrats have consistently called them weapons of war and are trying to ban them from being purchased by law-abiding citizens.

But whom does this bill exempt?

The Federal Government. Federal Government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and down the line.

So if they are weapons of war, as the Democrats call them, what do these departments need with weapons of war?

Is the Department of Education going to use them against the moms and dads who protest against woke local school board policies?

Is the Department of Housing and Urban Development going to use them against the occupants in their housing developments?

You cannot have it both ways. If it is a weapon of war, then ban these Federal agencies, too.

The truth is they are simply semiautomatic rifles the Democrats want to demonize so they can ban more guns and take more of our citizens' unalienable constitutional rights away.

Democrat ignorance and malice do not justify banning nearly 25 million firearms that Americans, including myself, proudly own and responsibly use.

Now I know the author of this legislation would prefer that I spare him both the prefatory clause and the supremacy clause of the Second Amendment. But it is quite clear: ``A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.''

Shall not be infringed, period, is the supremacy clause. And banning an entire class of firearms, the most popular firearm in common use today, is clearly infringement.

An armed America is a safe and free America. I urge all of my colleagues to stand firm in the fight to protect and preserve the Second Amendment by voting ``no'' on this unconstitutional and, therefore, illegal piece of legislation.

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