C. W. Bill Young: “to those who preceded me in this debate today to say that a TEC-9 semiautomatic assault weapon or any one of the other…”

“to those who preceded me in this debate today to say that a TEC-9 semiautomatic assault weapon or any one of the other 18 weapons specifically banned by this legislation has never been used to kill anyone in a town in their congressional district, I say you should be thankful. It is my hope and prayer that one of these weapons never will be brandished during the commission of a crime in those districts. Unfortunately, not every congressional district has been so fortunate. There has been case after case reported and documented where these weapons have been used to injure or kill innocent children, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers in their schoolyards, their homes, their offices, and on the streets of their hometowns. I know of these tragic stories because I have met survivors of these crimes. The semiautomatic weapons banned by this legislation were used in a way that has forever changed the lives of these families. For those who say these weapons are not used in crimes, I say tell that to Stephen Sposato, whose wife was killed by a man who walked into her San Francisco law firm carrying two TEC DC-9's he purchased in Nevada, because they were outlawed in California. After shooting her five times he turned his weapon on others in her office, killing seven more and wounding many others. Tell that to the survivors of this horror and to their loved ones.”