Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. FROST. Mr. Chair, today, I rise in opposition to this amendment, which will put American lives at risk.

The gentleman from the other side of the aisle made a point to talk about the Civilian Marksmanship Program and what it was intended to do and what it is intended to do.

This amendment would make our country more dangerous by adding another responsibility and priority to the program, to not just train people but to essentially become an arms dealer, putting more weapons on the streets of this country. It will increase the number of military firearms that will be put into circulation by the Civilian Marksmanship Program. It will increase the types of firearms that can be put into circulation by the CMP. It will transform an entity that has existed for a century intended to focus on gun safety and education into an arms dealer.

Since 1996, purchasing a firearm from the Civilian Marksmanship Program has required a person to certify that they are purchasing a gun only for their personal use. Just like purchasing a gun from any federally licensed gun dealer, it is illegal to buy a handgun intending to sell it to somebody else.

This amendment would change that. It would allow military guns to be bought and then immediately resold. We aren't just talking about World War II rifles or pistols, as the CMP has sold for about 100 years and like it currently is. This amendment will allow modern military and government shotguns and some rifles to be sold.

To save lives, Democrats have now twice passed the bill that would expand background checks on every gun sale, and here my Republican colleagues are wanting to make it even easier to dodge the rules that we do have.

Mr. Chair, recirculating retired service weapons already has inherent risk. More than 52,000 retired law enforcement firearms have been resold to the public and have been found at crime scenes between 2006 and 2022. That is 52,000 resold guns. They now want to make the number even more.

We have more guns than people in this country. We have a gun violence problem in this country. The solution is not the Federal Government putting more guns on the streets of this country.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. FROST. Mr. Chair, the interesting thing is the sponsor of this amendment, Mr. Pfluger, in his home State of Texas, there were 22 mass shootings in just the first 4 months of this year.

Mr. Chair, I am confused on where this amendment is coming from. Why do we need to task the CMP with selling more guns with less restrictions in a country where we have a gun violence problem?

It is interesting. It was one thing when the guns in questions were relics of World War II and World War I. This amendment takes it several steps further. It increases the potential number of weapons being transferred. It expands the type of weapons to include modern .45- caliber pistols and shotguns. It adds sources to every Federal department and agency so they can off-load their firearms to the secondary market, including folks like the FBI or ICE.

We have to dig deeper here because the CMP is a nonprofit. This new rule for the CMP, where they would sell massive amounts of firearms, is actually going to help gun manufacturers make mountain loads of money by putting more guns into circulation.

It is interesting. I looked it up. On a list of the 22 major sponsors of the CMP, 6 are gun manufacturers. They are companies like Colt, Glock, and Springfield. Mr. Chair, seven make gun accessories, and they produce ammunition.

That means that the gun manufacturers funding the CMP stand to benefit from the CMP selling even more weapons and having less restrictions. It is the same old-same old on every issue. They are finding loopholes for corporations to make more money when we have kids dying on the streets due to gun violence.

The research shows that more guns lead to more violence. Most Republicans, most Democrats, and--my favorite one--most NRA members are for commonsense gun reform like universal background checks.

Instead of wasting time on figuring out ways to make quasi-Federal agencies sell more guns on the streets, why don't we partner on this?

I oppose this amendment and urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. FROST. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. FROST. Mr. Chair, I will take the 1 minute to say this: This is one of many amendments I have come to debate this Congress where it seems like it was just written by the gun industry and the gun manufacturers.

It is disappointing. When gun violence happens, it doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican. Bullets don't care who you voted for. It impacts every single one of us in all of our districts.

I am member of Gen Z, but I call my generation the mass shooting generation. When I visit the schools in my district, they tell me they go through more school shooter drills than fire drills.

In fact, we just had a shooting at the Florida State University where a student used a retired service weapon to go into the school and kill people. This is not what we need to be doing at this time. We can argue on the merits of the CMP and the work they do on gun safety.

Adding another priority where they can sell more guns with less restrictions in our country, where we have this problem where we lose over 100 lives a day due to gun violence, is disgraceful. My hope is everyone will vote ``no'' on this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source