Jim Sensenbrenner: “Mr. Chairman, in a recent Washington Post article entitled, ``The Triumph of Psycho-fact,'' Mr. Robert Samuelson points…”

“Mr. Chairman, in a recent Washington Post article entitled, ``The Triumph of Psycho-fact,'' Mr. Robert Samuelson points out a phenomenon that is blatantly evident in our country today; that is, if people feel something is true, then it is, even if it is not. Mr. Chairman, this administration has done an excellent job of scaring the American people into supporting their every proposal, whether it be government controlled health care or the ban on assault weapons. And, more to the point, the bill before the House today is one of the bills that depends on this concept called ``psycho-fact.'' As Mr. Samuelson points out, good judgment requires good information, and consciousness-raising can be truth-lowering. Let me tell you why it is important to me and why you do need these kinds of semiautomatic weapons, I tell the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Hughes]. A constituent of mine, Donald Lee, called me, who happens to be Korean, and has relatives and friends that own stores and live above their stores in Los Angeles. During the L.A. riots, when the government and the L.A. police abandoned those store owners, the only way they could defend themselves, their families, and their stores, was to stand out in front of them with semiautomatic weapons.”