Chuck Schumer: “the Senator from Idaho is trying to oversell his point. He says it does not work. He cited one anecdote from a police…”

“the Senator from Idaho is trying to oversell his point. He says it does not work. He cited one anecdote from a police commissioner in Boston. Then he talked about the Brooklyn program. And then he talked about food and theater tickets. That is like saying we ought to scrap all automobiles because the Edsel did not work. We are not talking about those programs. We are not talking about $100; we are not talking about $250; and we are not talking about theater tickets. We are not talking about any of those. We are not even talking about law enforcement unless they live in a public housing project, and I do not think many do. We are talking about a program that housing authorities have run with great success. Again, I am not going to cite statistics. My friend from Idaho has some police saying this is 'feel good.' No, this is not feel good. It is life and death. I am trying to be honest in saying neither he nor I can prove whether these programs affect the statistics. It cannot be proven because there is no control. We do not have two identical cities or two identical housing projects, one that had the program and one that did not. I do not have to oversell my case because it is such a strong case. The strong case is a simple case, and that is when guns are off the streets and not in unwanted hands, our society is likely to be safer.”