On the recordJune 15, 2016
I thank the Senator for this clarification. I, in fact, don't think there is anything about this debate that we are having that, as they would describe it, is a debate about the Second Amendment. There is no dispute that the Second Amendment now, in the wake of the Heller decision, guarantees the right of an individual to own a firearm. That is the law of the land. But that same decision very explicitly makes it clear that it is within the right of Congress to put parameters around that right to make sure, for instance, that criminals or would-be criminals don't get access to firearms. So this certainly is not a debate about the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is clear. Right now, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, it guarantees an individual's right to a firearm, with reasonable conditions placed upon it by Congress. So we are simply debating the extension of a widely accepted condition on the Second Amendment, which is the inability of criminals, and as we are debating today, individuals on the terrorist watch list. I yield to the Senator for a question.
