Mark Gordon: “my friend from Virginia and I, and I think everyone here, share his objective, and that is to keep 50-caliber weapons…”

“my friend from Virginia and I, and I think everyone here, share his objective, and that is to keep 50-caliber weapons, and for that matter any weapon, out of the hands of terrorists. I am afraid, though, that his amendment does not accomplish that. The fact of the matter is that the State Department already has the ability, and uses it, to stop any type of sales of 50-caliber rifles to terrorists or any other type of undesirable groups. If there are any of these anywhere around in the world, and again I am not aware of any incidence where that has taken place, they have been sold illegally. So this amendment is not going to address the illegal sales. It may keep all weapons of 50 caliber here in this country, but they can be made elsewhere all around the world. So it just simply does not accomplish the goal that I know he wants and that we all want. And since he did mention the Barrett M107, let me point out also that it was selected by the Chief of Staff Office of the U.S. Army as one of the ``top 10 inventions of 2004'' for the fight against the war on terror. Certainly it has been beneficial to our troops. It can be beneficial to our allies around the world. Again, we do not want to see these weapons or any weapons in the hands of terrorists. We already have a method to stop that in terms of legal sales. This amendment does not get to the illegal sales. So a good objective, but a flawed amendment.”