Mike Thompson: “I thank the gentleman from California for his comments and for his service not only as a distinguished Member of this…”

“I thank the gentleman from California for his comments and for his service not only as a distinguished Member of this body, but his time as a medical professional. Sadly, he had to witness the carnage that comes about because of gun violence. I applaud his effort to help us reduce gun violence, to pass some commonsense laws that protect the Second Amendment. As I said earlier, as a gun owner and as a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, I think that is absolutely necessary. I think it is absolutely irresponsible for any gun owner to not stand up and be counted when it comes to passing commonsense public safety measures, such as no fly, no buy and background checks for the commercial sale of firearms. I thank my colleagues who joined with me this evening in this Special Order. You heard from everyone who spoke that moments of silence are not enough. We have had 30 moments of silence since the tragedy at Sandy Hook. It is not enough. We need to stop being silent, we need to speak up, and we need to do our job. We need to show the courage that our constituents have placed in us. We need to do our job to make sure that when parents send their kids to school, they can be reasonably assured that their kids are going to be safe. We need to do our job so that when people go into a church to pray, they don't have to worry about some maniac coming in and shooting them during their prayer hour.…”