Joe Lieberman: “I am proud to join Senators McCain, Reed, DeWine, Lautenberg, Schumer and Chafee in introducing this important…”

“I am proud to join Senators McCain, Reed, DeWine, Lautenberg, Schumer and Chafee in introducing this important legislation. This bill aims to build common ground on gun violence--a problem that has too often divided Members of Congress. As citizens of this great Democracy, we have rights and we have responsibilities. We have the right to own guns, but we have a responsibility not to sell them to criminals. That is the simple but important set of values on which the legislation we introduce today is founded. For several decades, our Nation has had a clear policy against allowing convicted felons to buy guns, because we know that mixing criminals and guns far too often yields violent results. Through the Brady law, we established what seems like an obvious corollary to that policy--a requirement that those selling guns determine whether someone trying to buy a firearm isn't supposed to get one before they sell it to them. The Brady law has been an enormous success. Since its enactment, background checks have stopped almost one million gun sales to those who by law aren't allowed to own guns--convicted felons, spouse abusers, fugitives from justice, among others. This has saved an untold number of our citizens from the violence, injury or death the sale of many of these guns would have brought.”