Date: 2016-01-07
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey. and I thank her for guiding us over the past couple of minutes dealing with an important issue. Let me quickly move us forward because. in just a few minutes. the President of the United States will join with a number of Americans on a very important townhall meeting dealing with the question of this very important issue of gun violence. Today I rise as the ranking member of the Crime. Terrorism. Homeland Security. and Investigations Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary. but I rise also. as my colleague. as a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus that has been at the leadership. I thank both Chairman GRIJALVA and Chairman ELLISON for their leadership and the opportunity for this time. Again. much was made of the fact that the President. in his last term. or his last year. sought to take on this very complicated issue. Much was made of the fact that the President chose gun violence as something that he took a personal and emotional interest in. Let me be very clear. There is never a time that is too short a time to confront the horrors of gun violence in this country. Let me give you simply an example of what we face not with adults who have confronted each other with a gun. but toddlers who are getting shot on a weekly basis. For example. a 2yearold in South Carolina found a gun in the backseat of the car he was riding in and accidentally shot his grandmother. who was sitting in the passengers seat. I found at least 43 instances this year of somebody being shot by a toddler 3 or younger. In 31 of these 43 cases. a toddler found a gun and shot himself or herself. These stories are emotional and they are real. In one instance. a 3yearold managed to wound both of his parents with a single gunshot at an Albuquerque motel. Shootings by toddlers have happened in 24 States so far this year. There is a story that comes to mind dealing with a little boy. a loving little boy in Kentucky who accidentally shot his 2yearold sister to death. Why? Because someone gave him a gun made by a manufacturer who made guns for children. Now. Mr. Speaker. I am not here to make moral judgments. That is something that I would not do. give a child that is 5 years old a gun. But what I am here to speak to is how we can come together. those who advocate and use guns. those who believe in open carry. those who believe in concealed weapons. those who believe in rifle shooting and deer hunting. All of that is part of the American way. There is no angst with that. What I am saying and what the President is saying with a tearful. emotional plea that he made just a few days ago is that we in America can do better. The Constitution says we can do better. The Declaration of Independence says we can do better. The First Amendment clearly provides us the access and the rights of free speech and movement. and the Second Amendment is clear that we do have a right to bear arms. Many of us historically believe that that was. of course. an amendment put in place to protect the beginning Founding Fathers and Mothers. if you will. in these early Colonies and to make sure that they were not overrun by the British. But it is still a standing amendment. and it takes a procedure for it to be undermined. which is the argument that I make for those who continuously raise the fact that the President and those of us who believe in gun safety or gun regulationwhich is not controlledare. in fact. trying to diminish the Second Amendment. We are not. But what we are trying to do is to do as the President has suggested: keep guns out of the wrong hands through background checks. For example. unfortunately. the tragedy in South Carolina. Charleston. South Carolina. where a crazed individual wanted to provoke a race war. worshipped with nine parishioners at Mother Emanuel Church. sat and prayed with the pastor. a distinguished senator. and those other loving saints. then sprayed bullets and killed nine of them. that individual had items in his background that should have warranted him not getting a gun. But what happened under law? The storekeeper. the gunshop owner. after 3 days when that particular affirmation or approval had not come. he gave the gun anyway. Foolish. It is so very foolish. There should be an extensive requirement that there is a background check when you are buying a gun on the Internet or other places we are exchanging guns. The President recognizes those kind of loopholes and wishes to avoid those kind of loopholes. The ATF is making clear that it doesnt matter where you conduct businessfrom a store. at a gun show. or over the Internetif you are in the business of selling firearms. you must get a license and conduct background checks. It baffles me why some people have said that wont make any difference. Yes. it will. because a lot of times in gun shows people who are here to do wrong are. in fact. going to be taking any easy way to get guns. Let me cite you an example. I always hear that those cities who have rigid gun laws. it doesnt matter. This is the argument I get from my friends in the NRA. and I call them my friends because I hope one day we will sit down at the table of engagement and collaboration because that is the American way. Let me give you the statistics that make sense. New York has strong gun laws. and Governor Cuomo implemented some stronger gun laws after certain tragedies occurred in his State. But here are the statistics that argue and refute and extinguish the argument of the NRA: 70 percent of the guns recovered by police in New York State in 2013 originated out of the State. The gun laws in New York are working. but because of their neighbors. they are suffering. That is why we need to have a regulated system that doesnt take peoples guns away. but provides the safety and security that the American people determine. I didnt say. Mr. Speaker. that 70 percent of the guns found in the hands of lawabiding citizens were from out of State. I said 70 percent of the guns that the New York City. NYPD. that has a great deal of respect across this Nation as one of the top accredited law enforcement agencies. 70 percent of those that they found were blackmarket guns coming into that State from elsewhere. That is a tragedy. I will tell you for sure that some of those guns were used to maim and kill and to fight in gun battles in the streets because we allow the kind of selling of guns without background checks and people going off and getting gun sales in the back of cars. We know that that has happened. ATF has finalized a rule to require background checks for people trying to buy some of the most dangerous weapons and other items through a trust corporation or other legal entity. Whatever we might say. I dont believe that it is relevant for us to have the AK47s just walking up and down the street. even if you want to say you believe in open carry. [ 1945 Also. overhauling the background check system to make it more effective and efficient. It is worth noting how many background checks are done. Make this 24 hours. 7 days a week. Maybe that would have prevented. I think. the tragedy in South Carolina. Make our communities safe from guns. Call on U.S. Attorneys to explain to people about gun safety. When I was on the Houston City Council. I introduced the first gun ordinance in a citythat gun safety ordinance is in place todaywhich was to hold parents responsible for children getting guns and shooting someone. Why? Because those guns should have been secured. There is nothing unconstitutional about regulating and saving the lives of children. Also. introducing 200 new ATF agents. I am very proud that Congresswoman ROBIN KELLY and myselfand we invite my colleagues to join in this legislationintroduced legislation that would. in fact. provide for 200 additional Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco. Firearm and Explosive agents and investigators to enforce gun laws. This is the very same thing that Republicans have been talking about. It is H.R. 4316. I invite my colleagues to join in that legislation to make a difference in the lives of so many. Let me say that. in addition. we want to make sure that we are highlighting the importance of receiving complete criminal history records and criminal dispositions. We want our States to be collaborative. Send to us the accurate records of those who perpetrate a crime in your community. That is making this particular background check more effective. We are going to do the heavy lifting 24 hours. 7 days a week with better technology. Make our communities safe. as I said. Teach about gun safety. Increase mental health treatment and reporting. We are talking about $500 million. The President needs our collaboration. I am very glad that we have also introduced. along with Congresswoman BASS. the authority to authorize funding to increase access to mental health care treatment in order to reduce gun violence. In the aftermath of the Presidents speech. I heard all of this talk about how we should be getting involved in gun violence and we should be talking about gun violence. I heard one Presidential candidate saying that we should be looking for the criminally ill. Well. what do you think this is? The President is asking for help from the ATF. and now he is asking for grants and the resources to deal with the criminally ill or those who are suffering from mental health issues and to stop them from committing gun violence. the very circumstance that occurred with respect to the horrificness of Sandy Hook. And as I hold up this poster boardthe individual ultimately took his life and the life of his mothercan we imagine these babies that lost their lives? In fact. we understand that some of those law enforcement officers could barely stand up as they went in and looked at the carnage. Certainly. that individual was known to have suffered from some form of mental illness. There should have been an intervention there. The President is asking for resources to help us with those who are suffering from mental health issues. He wants the Social Security Administration. as indicated. to begin a rulemaking process to include information about beneficiaries who are. in fact. suffering from mental health needs. This is not an invasion of privacy. This is information. This is not knocking on the door of those who are suffering from mental health concerns. But it is helping us be more effective if that individual seeks to purchase a gun. We want to shape the future of gun safety technology. The President directed the Departments of Homeland Securitywhich I am onDefense. and Justice to conduct or sponsor research. Guns can be more safe. If a child gets a gun in their hand. there can be more detail to pulling that trigger. The little boy that shot his sister. there was one bullet left in that gun. The parents didnt know it. It was left in a corner. He picked it up. It was his toy gun. He is a child. We need to be able to be responsive and start boxing each other and get around the same circle of improvement. Keeping guns out of the wrong hands through background checks is what the President has offered. Then. of course. we need to work to make our communities safe from gun violence by hiring 230 additional NICS examiners and other staff to assist with processing mandatory background checks. I think I mentioned the mental health resources that I think are so very important. I would also suggest that we ensure federally that people keep their guns safe. It is very crucial that we insist that guns are safe. Let me also indicate that Mr. CLYBURN has a very important initiativehe represents the district where the tragedy occurred in South Carolinato get rid of this 3day check and to make sure that everyone has a background check. no matter what is occurring. Let me finish. Mr. Speaker. with indicating the gunrelated homicides in this country. The rate of gunrelated homicides in the U.S. is far higher than that of other large and affluent countries. Are they any less stronger than we are? We have the highest number of homicides done by guns. We have Italy. Taiwan. Canada. Spain. Germany. Australia. the United Kingdom. France. South Korea. and Japan. Even with the terrorist activities. they are way below America. And you can see here the 353 mass shootings in America in 2015. All of those are by guns. If you are too dangerous to fly. you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America. I have the nofly for foreign terrorists. But. more importantly. we had legislation that Mr. KING sponsored. I believe. and others that just simply said: If you are on the nofly list. you cant have a gun. I want to find common ground. but most of all. I want to save lives. Here today I am saying to my colleagues that we are not saving lives if we are not sitting at the table of involvement. I will include in the RECORD a whole list of legislative initiatives about gun storage and safety devices and firearms transfer reporting. which is similar to what happened in South Carolina. where this gentleman got a guneffectively. he would not have been approvedalso. one on establishing a select committee on gun violence and gun violence researchthese are by other Membersalso. recognizing gun violence is a public health emergency. and coming back to allow the Centers for Disease Control to finally do research on the impact of gun violence.