Gun Violence

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Evans for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly represent the Sixth Congressional District of South Carolina in this august body. This past week, I spent a significant amount of time throughout the district meeting with faith leaders as well as other community-based organizations. And one of the things I kept hearing came from people who are particularly interested in whether or not this Congress will do anything to respond to this horrific problem that we have with guns.

Of all the things that I find myself talking about, the one thing that bothers me most is the fact that we seem to be no longer safe in our most sacred institutions.

I often quote Alexis de Tocqueville, who came to this country way back in the early 1800s seeking what he called the magic of this great country. He said that he went throughout the country looking at our institutions--educational institutions, legislative bodies--trying to find the magic of this great country. Alexis de Tocqueville said that he could not find it in any of these places. He said that it was not until he went into our churches and synagogues that he found the real magic of this great country. He said that he came to the conclusion that, in spite of all of the difficulties and challenges we had as a country, that America was great because Americans are good.

And he went on to surmise that, if Americans ever cease to be good, America will cease to be great. It is kind of interesting that he came to that conclusion by visiting our places of worship. And tonight I want to remind the American people that that sacred institution has been violated time and time again.

And on this question of gun violence, we remember the Emanuel 9: nine soulful Bible study pupils in the basement of their church, once again reestablishing the goodness of Americans. They had that goodness violated by a young man with a gun who sat among them for a full hour before opening fire, killing nine of them.

Now, when we think about that incident and we ask ourselves how could such a thing happen, one of the things that we do know is that this young man was able to purchase a weapon, although under the law he was not eligible to make the purchase; but because of a loophole that we have in the law, a loophole that I have taken to call the ``Charleston Loophole,'' which says simply that, if the background check is not completed within 3 days, the purchase can proceed to conclusion.

Now, the fact of the matter is, this gun was purchased in West Columbia. I don't know whether or not this young man had enough sophistication about the law to give the wrong information about his address. but what we do know is that the wrong address was keyed in; and because it was keyed in, there was difficulty trying to get the information that was needed.

By the time they found out the problem, the 3 days had expired, and the young man went back to get the gun, and, within days, traveled all the way from Columbia, South Carolina, down to Charleston.

He picked this church because, he said, it was historic. He wanted to go into a historic Black church.

Well, this month, the Nation has set aside time to honor the contributions of Black Americans. I can think of no way for us to better highlight what this month is all about than to, once and for all, close this Charleston loophole, to demonstrate to those nine African-American worshippers, who were going about the business of helping to make this country great, going about the business of demonstrating the goodness of Americans, to have their lives snuffed out; I can think of no better way for us to honor their lives than for us to close this loophole.

Tomorrow, I am going to come before this body with a discharge petition, because the legislation to close this loophole was filed in this body last July. It has been hanging around now for 8 months. I am going to ask all of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to sign this discharge petition before the end of this Black History Month so that we can say to those souls: Rest in peace.

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his question.

I am sort of a history buff, and so I have spent a little time trying to find out what this country is all about. I also recall a great writer, George Santayana, once writing that if we fail to learn the lessons of our history, we are bound to repeat them.

I believe that history should be instructive, and I think that that is what de Tocqueville was talking about in his writings. He really came to this country, from France, to study our penal system on that particular occasion, but he was enamored with this country because of its people.

Now, the interesting thing about this, remember, the early 1800s when he came here, slavery was the law of the land, and he wrote about how contradictory that was to what he found in people's hearts, the goodness that he found in people.

So irrespective of what the challenges may be of the various institutions that we may have, the various legal issues that may come before us, the various legislative accomplishments we might make, irrespective of all that, there is a certain goodness in Americans that ought to be on demonstration at all times.

I really feel that it will demonstrate that goodness if we can say to these nine souls that, just as Alexis de Tocqueville found in our places of worship, what the basic goodness about America is all about, that is what they were in pursuit of as they sat in the basement of their church, Emanuel AME, on Calhoun Street, Charleston, South Carolina, they were there perpetuating that goodness, and it was violated.

I believe that this body can take a long step toward demonstrating how important that is by saying, in their memory, we are going to close this loophole so that their nine souls can rest in peace.

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