Luke Messer: “Thanks again to the gentleman from Florida. I appreciate your comments today. I thank my colleague from Utah and my…”

“Thanks again to the gentleman from Florida. I appreciate your comments today. I thank my colleague from Utah and my colleagues from Texas who had the opportunity to speak earlier, and I appreciate your leadership on this important topic. Obviously, we face many challenges as a Nation. The Second Amendment is one of them, but an important one. Clearly, we all want to prevent horrible tragedies similar to the loss of those young lives in Newtown, Connecticut; but gun bans and many of the other proposals from this President are not the answer. For example, an internal memo from the Justice Department said that the universal background checks proposed by this President will only be effective if paired with required gun registration--a list of law- abiding citizens who simply exercise their constitutional right to own a firearm. This is a blatant intrusion of privacy, and it cannot be allowed. We need real solutions that aim to identify, treat or limit access to the evil few who perpetrate these horrible acts. I am unwilling to turn my back on the Constitution and sacrifice the liberty of the people I represent for a false sense of security. We need real solutions; and despite our disagreements, there are opportunities to work together. As I mentioned earlier, blaming a gun for violence is to blame a pen for a misspelled word.…”