Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I think it is clear to the American people the extraordinary irony of this argument by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle in that they are deeply focused on national security interests and the protection of infrastructure while they refuse to debate, for a moment, the fact that thousands of people on the terrorist watch list have purchased guns. Ninety-five percent of the people who have been killed in this country by terrorists since September 11 have been killed by a firearm, and there is no legal prohibition against preventing those individuals from going into a gun store and buying as many weapons as they want. So if we are really interested in protecting the American people and the infrastructure and the national security of this country, let's start with the simple proposition: prevent suspected terrorists from buying guns. Mr. Speaker, since we adjourned the last time, 2 weeks ago, 543 Americans have been killed by gun violence. In my home State, since the beginning of this year, five people have been killed, and 36 people have been wounded in the State of Rhode Island by gun violence. Every day, 91 Americans lose their lives to an incident of gun violence. We kill each other with guns at a rate that is 297 times higher than in Japan, 49 times higher than in France, and 33 times higher than in Israel, just to give you some comparison. We have a gun violence epidemic in this country.…”