Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Madam Chair, I would just point out in further support of Mr. Nadler's remarks, on average, 20 veterans commit suicide every single day in this country, and two-thirds of those suicides are caused by use of a gun. So Mr. Nadler is quite right. Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1112 to close the Charleston loophole. We have heard a lot about what is at stake in terms of constitutional rights as it relates to possession of a firearm. There are other constitutional rights that are at issue here, and that is the right to life, liberty, the right to live free of gun violence and death, the right of a grandmother to sit on her porch and enjoy a summer evening free from the dangers of gun violence, the right of young children to play in a playground and play safely. So this legislation is very important because it closes a very significant loophole in our law. Over the last two decades, the Charleston loophole has allowed more than 60,000 purchases of guns by prohibited individuals. Let that sink in. Sixty thousand people who are prohibited from having a gun by law were allowed to get those guns because of this loophole. One of those purchasers was a white supremacist who used the gun that he purchased to kill nine worshippers at the Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina. Even though he had a felony drug charge on his record, this killer was able to buy a gun because his background check wasn't completed in 3 days.…”