Byron Donalds: “Gun crime in the United States is a tragedy for us all. I heard the talk about Sandy Hook, about Columbine, and, yes…”

“Gun crime in the United States is a tragedy for us all. I heard the talk about Sandy Hook, about Columbine, and, yes, about Parkland, which happened in my State. It is a tragedy that we all face. But the one thing, Mr. Speaker, we all have to remember is that, in each one of these instances, the person who acquired the firearm that committed this tragedy acquired it lawfully, or they stole the weapons from somebody else. This bill would not change any of those tragedies. If anything, what this bill does, it puts more burden on law-abiding Americans and does whittle away and strip their constitutional right to bear arms. You see, the issue is much more about mental health than it is about the ability to acquire firearms. For this body to unilaterally make it significantly more difficult for a law-abiding citizen to acquire a firearm, which is their constitutional, God-given right, is this body acting outside of its authority under the United States Constitution. Mr. Speaker, in short, this bill will not fix the tragedies that we face. Unfortunately, laws don't fix most of the tragedies that we face as Americans. What fixes them is dealing with the human condition that, unfortunately, inhabits people in our country. We should be working on that, not stripping the constitutional rights from our fellow citizens.”