Pete Sessions: “Mr. Speaker, this is the very end of the debate about a very, very important commonsense piece of legislation. The…”

“Mr. Speaker, this is the very end of the debate about a very, very important commonsense piece of legislation. The amendments that were before the Committee on Rules would have done a lot of things. I disagree with us having the Federal Government print a list of all the people who have a gun in this country. I think that is dangerous. I think that is dangerous precedent for us as consumers to think that we would purchase a product and then someone would print our name about a product that we buy. But that is what we were asked to do yesterday, and we denied them. We did allow the minority the chance to have its debate on five amendments. That is what is going to take place today. This legislation is common sense. The process has been open and fair. The Committee on Rules was available yesterday. The Speaker, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier), the chairman, intentionally went out of their way to make sure that we would have a vigorous debate today because we think the light of day is the best disinfectant there is to fairness. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), the original sponsor of this bill, the author of this bill, showed up on the floor and offered a hardy debate. We have had others that have done the same. So I think America is free. I think we are using this body for what it was intended, as a sharing of issues and ideas.”