Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I am glad that the gentleman brought up the dilemma that this amendment would pose for law enforcement. It would, shockingly, actually, impose individual penalties on law enforcement officers who are just trying to do their jobs but who might mistakenly detain someone in connection with his possession of a firearm if he were transporting it in a way that is protected under this amendment. This is going to have a chilling effect on law enforcement's ability to protect Americans from gun trafficking, to make us safer at a time when there are more guns in the hands of more people than ever before, when we have more accidents, when we are experiencing a tragic gun violence epidemic. I am also concerned that this amendment goes a little further than just being a narrow cleanup of the anecdotal stories we heard about travelers who were inconvenienced or detained. As I read the amendment, it not only would allow a person to walk down the street with an unloaded gun, as long as that gun had a trigger lock on it--regardless of State law, regardless of any local rules that may be in effect--it would allow one to take that gun onto trains, cable cars, and trollies even if local jurisdictions prohibited that. Again, so long as the gun had a trigger lock in place.…”