I thank my colleague for the question, and I want to reiterate the nature of our partnership that he underscored. He and I were there together in Newtown in that firehouse hours after that shooting, and we have spent probably hundreds of…

Mr. President, first, I extend my thanks to Chairman Shelby and Ranking Member Mikulski for putting together a truly bipartisan bill. I am honored to be a member of the Appropriations Committee and honored to support this bipartisan…

Mr. President, I do agree with the Senator. We are both members of New England States. We are both members of States where people enjoy hunting. I run into very few hunters who believe they need an AR-15-style weapon in order to enjoy…

That is true. I thank the Senator for making that patently clear. What we are suggesting here is that the way we can come together in this body is around the simple premise that individuals with serious criminal records, individuals who…

Mr. President, I say through the Chair to the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee that of course it would make a difference. What the Manchin-Toomey bill has always contemplated is that sales that were advertised would be covered by…

These are measures that can save lives. Facts have changed. We have seen over and over again the carnage that comes by allowing these loopholes to persist. Yes, we have had debates on this floor, but we have had debates and taken votes on…

When you present these issues to the American public, they scratch their heads, or they scratch their heads because they assume already that individuals on the terrorist watch list cannot buy guns. They think it is absurd that we passed a…

It is a wonderful subtext to all of the rhetoric that comes from the gun lobby and the NRA that there is this secret agenda to essentially get the camel's nose under the tent through an expansion of background checks or a restriction on…

Whereas the First Amendment doesn't place the condition into the text--they are read into it--the Second Amendment has conditions in the literal text.

I haven't memorized portions of the Constitution as well as Senator King has, but he very eloquently stated for us the preamble of the Constitution, which commits us first and foremost to preserve domestic tranquility and to protect the…

It will have no effect on law-abiding gun owners in Maine or anywhere else. This has nothing to do with those individuals.

I thank the Senator. I think it is really important that we have the diversity of our caucus represented as part of this discussion today. Senator King and Senator Donnelly are both strong supporters of the Second Amendment. I am glad to…