Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator. I am reclaiming my time. I thank the Senator for asking that question because I think it is important for us to be clear about why we are here. We are here not to hold the floor for holding the floor's sake but because we have had enough of condolences and thoughts and prayers without action from this body. We think we have identified two commonsense measures that are supported by the vast majority of the American public: making sure that people who are suspected of being terrorists cannot purchase weapons and making sure that the background check system applies to all of the commercial venues in which guns are sold. We think it is time for us to have a debate on those two measures on the floor of the Senate and to be able to get a vote--something this body used to do a lot of--on those two measures. We have selected measures that are not controversial to the American public. They are supported by 80 to 90 percent of Americans. So we are holding the floor and we are standing on the floor today in anticipation of Republican and Democratic leadership coming to us and saying: We are ready to talk about how we can make this country safer by keeping guns away from suspected terrorists. If we can get an agreement to have a vote on expanding background checks and including people on the terrorist watch list on the list of those who are prohibited from having guns, then this debate we are having can stop and we can move forward to a vote. I yield for a question.”