I thank Chair Thompson for the years of work. I have had the privilege of working with him, and that we have come to this point is very much attributable to his persistence.

I believe your statistics of 3 million people effectively being stopped through gun checks, and the universal background check bill is a bill of common sense.

Does it violate the Second Amendment?

The law-abiding citizens would not be blocked from getting a gun through a background check. Is that correct?

Report from Pennsylvania State Police Trooper, Instant Check System Firearms, submitted by the Honorable Madeleine Dean

In States where we have robust regulation States, like Pennsylvania, that have moved to fill some of the loopholes in Federal law, States like California, Connecticut, New York, we are seeing a far greater reduction in gun violence and gun…

Today is a day of action, and it is a day of extraordinary hope.

I do think in this Committee that we should... not have broad labels of immigrants, African Americans, women, as we debate.

We all want to get to an end of gun violence, but I would like to ask Doctor--and by the way, for victims, my heart goes out to whether it is a shooting, it is sexual assault.

We need to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and gun traffickers, keeping weapons of war off the street.

This isn't a Second amendment issue. This is a public health crisis.

It is time for our collective outrage to drive commonsense gun legislation and for that legislation to become law.

It has been 8 years and hundreds of thousands of lives lost to gun violence since the last time Congress held a hearing on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today just hours before our 45th President, Donald Trump, will deliver the State of the Union Address. Members of Congress and guests will fill the Chamber tonight to hear the President speak about a host of issues…

I think the president's going to go out there and deliver a speech that you know the country is actually doing pretty well.

I think there is a compromise that will include some element of DACA, some element of these TPA folks.

One of the issues that the president brought that got bipartisan applause... I'm trying to actually come up with some ideas that we can even recommend to the Congress on paid parental leave.

I would agree that it's a political problem.