On the recordDecember 9, 2015
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, we have a gun violence epidemic in this country. There have been nearly 50,000 incidents of gun violence in our country this year. More than 12,400 people have lost their lives. There have been more than 350 mass shootings in the United States this year, more than there have been days in the year. For many killers in these mass shootings, assault weapons are the weapons of choice. Right now, Mr. Speaker, someone who is on the terrorist watch list, someone law enforcement has deemed too dangerous to board an airplane, can walk into a gun store and buy an assault rifle. This is insane. H.R. 1076 will fix this. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman King of New York for introducing this commonsense bill, and I applaud him for actually working with the Democrats. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the bill. We need more people on his side of the aisle to stop kneeling at the altar of the NRA and actually do something about this urgent threat to public safety. Mr. Speaker, if we don't pass this into law, then shame on us for doing nothing while thousands of Americans are dying each year from gun violence. Instead of spending time on this Texas landgrab, as Mr. McGovern says, we should be focused on the urgent issues facing our country. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question so we can take up H.R. 1076 and do something to protect our constituents from gun violence in this country.
