Equal Rights for All

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Green for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, June 17, we will commemorate the first anniversary of what I like to refer to as the Charleston 12. Nine people lost their lives that night at the Emanuel AME Church, but three people survived: two by playing dead and a third because the murderer went over to her and said: I am going to spare you so you can carry the message.

This young man who perpetrated this act did so after doing some significant research. We know that he went on the Internet, and he found the historic church that he thought would be the proper place to start, in his words, a race war. This young man was able to purchase a weapon that he did not qualify to purchase.

Under our laws, he was to be subjected to a background check, and he was; except that our law has created a loophole that says, though there is a 3-day waiting period that the background check should take place, if at the expiration of the 3 days the background check is not completed, then you can purchase the weapon.

Well, 3 days after he started the purchase, the background check was not completed. Why? Somebody keyed in or gave the wrong information.

Let's just think about this for a moment. A person knowing what the law is could very well give erroneous information knowing that it might take more than the 3 days for anybody to find the error. They found the error, but 3 days had expired. I have no idea whether or not this young man did this or whether or not the seller entered the wrong information.

There are two cities that border one river with a short bridge between the two: West Columbia and Columbia. This gun was purchased in West Columbia, but, as I understand it, the seller keyed in Columbia, and so the error was not found until too late.

I have proposed legislation here to close what has become known as the Charleston loophole by saying the purchase cannot be completed until the background check is completed. If it takes 3 days, fine. If it takes 1 day, that is fine. But it may take 4 or 5 days or may even be 10 days if the wrong information is keyed in.

So I don't understand why this commonsense piece of legislation cannot be brought to this floor so we can vote to close that loophole or attempt to close the loophole. I think it is time for us to go on record.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I grew up in South Carolina. I was a part of the movement that started back in the late 1950s and early 1960s that a lot of people have called the student movement. I was a part, along with John Lewis, a Member of this body, of the first and second organizing meetings of what became known as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

I still remember my first meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., October 1960, the same weekend that I met John Lewis for the first time. I spent that evening that I met Dr. King, I was with him until around 4, 4:30 the next morning. I started reading and studying everything I possibly could about Dr. King. I believe, of all of his speeches, of all of his writings, the one thing that stands out to me more than any other is his letter from the Birmingham City Jail.

It is an iconic document; a timely document, in my opinion. Dr. King wrote his letter from that jail in response to a letter that he had received from 8 White clergymen who called upon him to leave Birmingham because they thought his being there was disruptive.

In the letter to Dr. King, they said to him: We want you to understand, Dr. King, we believe that your cause is right, but your timing is wrong.

In responding to them, Dr. King said: Time is neutral. Time is never right; time is never wrong. Time is always what we make it.

Dr. King continued that thought by saying he was coming to the conclusion that the people of ill will in our society make a much better use of time than the people of good will. He closed that particular thought by saying that we are going to be made to repent not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people.

We are suffering today because some real good people in this House are remaining silent when events cry out for our attention. We should not be ignoring these issues that lead to incidents like the one that occurred at Emanuel AME Church. We should not be silent after things like Sandy Hook. And we should not be silent today, after experiencing what we have earlier this week in Orlando, Florida.

I think that the more we look into this, we see that this is not about ISIS or any foreign terrorists. All of that, it seems to me, from what I have read, is to camouflage something else. And that is, in my opinion, this was, in fact, a hate crime. It certainly shows from the evidence that this young man who perpetrated this act hated a lot of the people he was around, and maybe even himself.

So I believe that the time has come for us to break our silence in this House. The LGBT community cries out for our involvement. This incident highlights what we ought to be doing to show our respect for that community as well as our respect for the rule of law.

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Mr. CLYBURN. I appreciate that. I do have something I would like to say on that. Dr. King was sitting in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, because he found some injustices there. In fact, in the letter, he said--in responding to those ministers--that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And I think that Dr. King, if he were here today, would be speaking out about the threat to justice that the LGBTQ community is now experiencing. I do want the people of that community to know that they are not alone. I do believe that we should all respect human beings.

If I may? I thought as you were speaking, Dr. King, in his letter, talked about those who carried the gospel and how they were vilified. I thought about, I believe it is the 11th chapter in the Book of Second Corinthians, Paul, in his writings, talked about all that he had endured--the beatings, the jailings that he had endured--trying to spread the gospel.

I thought about those badges of honor--the jailings that Dr. King, John Lewis, and many others endured. I had a few sentences myself, but I thought about that, and these are, in fact, badges of honor.

So I want the people of the LGBT community to know that they are not alone in their trials and tribulations, and that at some point in, hopefully, the not too distant future, the good people in this body will rise up and break their silence.

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Mr. CLYBURN. I agree. Of course, having served as the majority whip in this body, all it takes is 218. I do believe that there are 218 good people in this body who will vote for these--especially these three pieces of legislation dealing with what I call commonsense, good gun policy.

The fact of the matter is that all of us believe in the Constitution of these United States. It is the glue that holds us together as a country, as a people. The fact of the matter is the Constitution--our right to the Constitution--is not unbridled.

I am often amused to hear people talk about our First Amendment rights to free speech and to peaceably assemble. Those of us back in the sixties lived and died advocating the First Amendment, but the fact of the matter is our rights under the First Amendment are not unbridled. The Supreme Court has spoken to that with the famous phrase: your First Amendment rights will not give you the right to yell ``fire'' in a crowded theater.

That means that the First Amendment is not unbridled.

Why is it, then, that we can't look at the fact that the Second Amendment rights that we have to bear arms, we are not taking that right away when we say the background check should be completed?

Maybe we will turn up that you are mentally incompetent to have a weapon. Maybe we will find that you at one time, if not another, are on this no-fly list.

One piece of legislation we have here deals with it. No fly, no buy. Anyone on the no-fly list, to me, ought not be able to get a firearm. If you are suspicious enough as to pose a threat and be on that list, I don't think you ought to be getting a firearm. If you have been convicted of a hate crime, which is another piece of legislation here, you ought not to be able to buy a gun.

Those are commonsense policies that ought to be put into law. And for us to lay prone at the altar of the NRA and not allow just simple, good faith bills to come to this floor, I don't quite understand that. I don't think that the American people will continue to be kind to us if we do not step up and do what is necessary to protect them.

Those 49 people who lost their lives in that nightclub in Orlando are deserving of a Congress that will protect them. Also, those nine lives at the Emanuel AME Church. If we had stepped up and not put that loophole in this law, they would have been protected. I am convinced from all that I have seen that those people would still be alive today if that loophole were not in the law.

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Mr. CLYBURN. Well, I think the gentleman has summarized this adequately and, I think, appropriately.

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