Political Quotes

“H.R. 1818 provides States with needed flexibility in addressing juvenile crime, and for that reason, it has my support. But this bill is, at best, a partial solution. In a country where kids and guns are a deadly combination, any juvenile justice bill which fails to deal with access to guns is seriously flawed. Earlier this year, the House had a chance to pass meaningful legislation that would have addressed this problem. By adding a simple child safety lock provision to the juvenile crime bill, we would have taken a significant step toward reducing access to guns and to dramatically reducing the number of accidental gun deaths in this country. But that vote never happened, thanks to pressure on the Republican leadership from the national gun lobby. And so a gun lock amendment, supported by 80 percent of the American people, still has yet to be directly voted upon by this House. This is an astonishing failure for this House. Shootings are now the fourth leading cause of accidental death of children, and for every child killed, four more are wounded. This is a national tragedy, and the House is doing nothing about it.”