Political Quotes

“Madam President, I thought one of the few things that we agreed on with firearms was that people with serious mental illness-- people who are judged to be mentally incompetent--shouldn't be able to buy guns. That is what we are talking about here today. We are not talking about people who just can't balance their checkbooks. We are not talking about people who just need some assistance with their financial affairs. The standard that the VA uses is the standard of mental incompetence. These are veterans who have been judged to be mentally incapacitated. And let me put a finer point on it. One-third of the veterans we are talking about in this category are diagnosed schizophrenics, and this amendment allows for every single one of them to have their gun rights restored. Some of the most mentally ill people in this Nation--people to whom we owe a duty of care; people who are, frankly, more prone to suicide than the general population--are now going to be able to get their hands on a weapon to kill themselves or others if we pass this. This is a death sentence for scores of deeply mentally ill veterans. What it does not do is set up some process by which to have a court judge whether or not they should own a gun. In fact, there is no current cause of action for that to occur. We didn't have to be at this point where our only choice is to restore gun rights even to actively suicidal veterans.…”