Frank Lautenberg: “I rise to raise questions about that which is currently now being offered by the Senator from Idaho. There is no doubt…”

“I rise to raise questions about that which is currently now being offered by the Senator from Idaho. There is no doubt about the appropriateness of the amendment, as it was presented by the Senator from Maryland, because it was her constituents, seven of them, who were shot by the sniper, six of whom died. For over a month in the fall of 2001, John Muhammad and John Lee Malvo terrorized the Washington metropolitan area through a series of vicious sniper attacks on innocent men, women, and children. In the area, Americans were afraid to walk outside, afraid to pump gas outside, school activities were moved to enclosed areas. Everyone was a target. As it turned out, there was ample reason to be frightened. From the trunk of Muhammad's car, the snipers used a Bushmaster assault weapon to shoot 13 people in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Ten of the 13 died. We have heard the names of those such as Linda Franklin, 47-year-old FBI analyst, standing with her husband in the Home Depot parking lot in Virginia. She was killed. Another was Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old retired carpenter standing on a street corner, shot and killed. Another victim was Iran Brown, a 13-year-old boy who had just been dropped off at school.”