Frank Lautenberg: “I want to talk about a piece of legislation that I have proposed that was approved here in this body by a vote of 97 to…”

“I want to talk about a piece of legislation that I have proposed that was approved here in this body by a vote of 97 to 2. They approved an amendment that I sponsored to ban wife beaters and child abusers from owning guns, from possessing guns. Yet, over the past couple of days, behind closed doors, there has been a determined effort to gut my proposal and to expose the battered woman and the abused child to an enraged man with a gun in his hand. As I explained yesterday, there has been an attempt to undermine the proposal in four primary ways: First, some sought to exclude child abusers from the ban by limiting its application only to 'intimate partners.' Second, they sought to effectively give a waiver to every wife beater and child abuser who was convicted before this legislation goes into effect. Third, they sought to render the ban entirely ineffective in the future by excusing anyone who did not get notice of the firearm ban when they were originally charged. So that includes all of those who committed domestic abuse, beat up their wives, beat up their kids who weren't told in advance there may be a serious penalty to take away their guns. What a pity. Instead, what they want to do, realistically, is make it prospective only. For those who didn't get notice, they can perhaps dodge out of a charge by saying, well, I did not get effective notice. It is a pity.”