James Barcia: “my commitment is to protect this Nation's law abiding citizens, or, more importantly, to allow them to protect…”

“my commitment is to protect this Nation's law abiding citizens, or, more importantly, to allow them to protect themselves. I am deeply concerned about the terrible toll that violent crime takes on our society. Decent people are being held hostage by a small but brutally violent segment of our population. Our response? Criminals serve increasingly smaller portions of already short sentences, while we take rights away from their victims. The FBI statistics prove that banning guns does not address the growing crime rate. Less than 3 percent of murders in this country involve semiautomatic weapons. A person has a 95-percent greater chance of being killed by a blunt object than a rifle. Maybe we should ban knives and fists, which are responsible for 15 and 5 percent of homicides respectively. The right to keep and bear arms is a basic guarantee of our Constitution, and, no, this right has not outlived its purpose in today's world. We must renew and strengthen this right for our law abiding citizens. The way to fight crime, Mr. Speaker, is to punish criminals for the crimes they commit by imposing harsh penalties and assuring that they are served. If you want to join me in encouraging States to do this, cosponsor my bill, House Concurrent Resolution 105. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to remember who we are talking about in this debate. Taking guns from Americans does not make them safer because the criminals will still have them.”