Gun Violence

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Pennsylvania for yielding. I won't be coming and running, though; but, nonetheless, I appreciate the kind words.

I am going to talk in a little different direction than from most of the previous speakers.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, I am a country boy. I live in the country. Hunting is a rite of passage for most people who live in the country.

For the record, this past Friday, I hunted rabbit with three ministers, two deputy sheriffs, a county commissioner, and just a bunch of everyday people. But I don't need an assault weapon to hunt rabbit with.

So this notion that somehow an infringement on my Second Amendment right to bear arms is associated with a killing weapon, a weapon that was designed for war, a weapon that is designed to reap carnage in whatever environment that it is in--for those of us who hunt deer, who hunt ducks, who hunt pheasants, we look at this whole discussion and ask: Who are these people who want 30-, 40-, 50-shot clips in a gun? What are they hunting?

Those of us who are outdoorsmen, those of us who love the environment, we are not supportive of this notion that these kind of guns are made for outdoors. They are not. So it is a false premise, Mr. Speaker, that somehow my rights are being abridged.

Now, as important with this is this notion that somehow we are not safe unless I own a gun like this. Well, the people that I hunt with, they have absolutely no problem applying for whatever license they are required to have to own their guns. They don't have a problem with waiting so that they can clear up whatever question it is from the standpoint of owning a gun.

They really don't have a problem with saying gun shows should be outlawed because those are places where people sell guns, and sometimes there is a question about the legality of the guns they are selling.

Background checks. You know, if I have to have a background check for financing of anything. Then why shouldn't I have a background check to own a weapon?

A bump stock. Now, until what had occurred in Las Vegas, most of us had never heard of a bump stock. I mean, it was just some kind of exotic thing you put on a gun to make it an automatic weapon. But, again, all those things, to those of us who hunt, that is not who we are.

I marvel at some of my colleagues who probably couldn't hit anything with a gun, but they want to stand up and defend people who buy assault weapons. I challenge them to come, get up at 4:30, 5 in the morning, and let's go to the woods and let's do what real hunters do. Let's not just get on TV and brag about my Second Amendment rights, and then put on a $500 suit and go on downtown and don't go to the woods.

What we saw in Florida, it was absolutely tragic. Errors occurred. We need to fix it. But I dare to say--and I absolutely hope I am wrong-- when the comments subside, I doubt that we will have any legislation brought forward to address this assault weapon problem we have in this country. I doubt that we will have any legislation brought forward to look at the loopholes associated with purchasing guns. I doubt that we will have the age limit raised on individuals purchasing guns. The will is not here. I wish my colleagues could man up, or woman up, and do the right thing.

I am training my grandson, who is 12 years old, the right way to own a gun, to handle a gun, to do the things that are correct. He will have to go through gun safety classes before he gets his license. But more importantly is he understands that this weapon is either for sport or protection. But, you know, I don't need an AR-15. I have deer rifles. I have shotguns. That is what sportsmen use.

So all this killing that is going on is bad, and I really wish we would take the emotions out and say, let's just get rid of these high- powered weapons that are killing machines.

I could go on and on, but I won't. But I can just say that it is a problem, and I don't think the will is here in this body to address it. Every time a tragedy occurs, we take a moment of silence and we do nothing.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. This AR-15?

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Well, it is a weapon designed to kill. It is a weapon designed for war.

My friends who are in law enforcement, I want them to have weapons like that to defend themselves here; but we have made these guns street-legal, so there is the potential that our friends in law enforcement are going to run up on people who have guns as powerful, if not more powerful than they are.

That gun is not made for hunting. It is not made for anything other than to kill. I want my soldiers who are fighting wars to have weapons like that.

But, again, for us to try to stretch the margin, that that is a Second Amendment right to bear arms, it is not any arm. Again, it is a killing machine. And if anybody has ever had an opportunity to fire one, which I have, it is not accurate at all; but it will spray a lot of bullets out and will do some killing, like we just saw in Florida and a lot of other places.

It is not who we are as a nation. We are a better people than that. But adults are going to have to do the right thing. Otherwise, the young people of this country will do it for us.

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