Political Quotes

“on April 20, 1999, 14 young students and a teacher lost their lives at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. That was one of a series of deadly incidents of school violence over the last 2 years. The day that happened, the Senate Judiciary Committee was not engaged in working on crime proposals or public safety issues. That day, like today, we were devoting our attention to the symbolism of this proposed amendment to the Constitution, which would weaken the first amendment for the first time in history, so that we might make criminal the burning of the American flag. Scores of our Nation's children have been killed and wounded over the last 2 years. They haven't been killed or wounded by burning flags. They have been killed and wounded by firearm violence. Our loss has been from school violence that has shaken communities across this country. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the Senate and the House have not found time to have the juvenile crime bill conference meet and resolve the differences. So even though we have passed a juvenile crime bill, one that has modest gun control in it, the gun lobby said we can't meet on that. We cannot have meetings on it. We cannot resolve those differences. Instead, we step forward and say to the American people: We will protect your children, we will protect your schools, we will make sure we have a constitutional amendment banning the burning of flags.”