Joseph Skeen: “I rise today in opposition to H.R. 4296, the Assault Weapons Ban Act, for several reasons. I believe the supporters of…”

“I rise today in opposition to H.R. 4296, the Assault Weapons Ban Act, for several reasons. I believe the supporters of this measure are looking through the wrong end of the binoculars on this issue. the problem is not these guns; it's the criminals. According to the FBI, the types of weapons proposed to be banned in this bill are responsible for less than 1 percent of all murders and less than 1 percent of all serious crime. This law proposes to punish hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens for the actions of law-breaking criminals. We know from experience that gun ban laws do not reduce crime. Every type of gun control law proposed in Congress has already been tried and no one can show any correlation between gun restrictions and lower crime rates in localities with gun restriction laws. Gun restriction laws don't work because law breakers don't follow them. That's why they're called criminals. No law passed by the Congress can compel criminals to obey laws. What Congress can do to reduce crime is to lock up the criminals. The FBI Uniform Crime Reports show that from 1981 to 1991, the 10 States with the greatest increases in criminal incarceration rates experienced the greatest decreases in the rates of crime. The answer to America's violent crime problem is simple: Lock up the violent criminals, because they cannot disturb and disrupt the lives of innocent citizens when they are behind bars and in jail.”