On the recordJune 22, 2016
as a member of the Appropriations Committee, I am concerned about a pending amendment, McCain amendment No. 4787. We had a series of votes earlier this week on sensible gun safety measures. We know by all the polling that the overwhelming majority of Americans supported these measures, but they were blocked by Senate Republicans. Now it appears the Republican leadership wants to change the subject. They are resorting to scare tactics to divert the attention of the American people from their failure to act in response to mass shootings. Let's be clear about what we need to stay safe. We need universal background checks for firearms purchases and we need to give the FBI the authority to deny guns to terrorist suspects. Senate Republicans rejected those commonsense measures earlier this week, but we still have the chance to give law enforcement real and effective tools. We should strengthen our laws to make it easier to prosecute firearms traffickers and straw purchasers. I am a gun owner. I know if I go in to buy a gun in Vermont--even though the gun store owner has known me most of their life--I have to go through a background check. But you can have somebody who has restraining orders against them, warrants outstanding against them, or who could have been convicted of heinous crimes, and they can walk into a gun show, with no background check, and buy anything they want.…
