Smarter Gun Laws

Floor Speech

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Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that, for 242 years, whenever and wherever America's freedom has been threatened, we called in the Marines.

A Marine Corps infantry platoon is trained to close with and destroy the enemy by firearm and maneuver. That is what we do. That is our purpose. Marines kick in the door and kill the bad guys. Period. I know because that is what I had to do in Iraq. My platoon fought door-to- door against deadly insurgents. For this mission, the Marine Corps issued me an M-16 A4.

The M-16 is a weapon designed with exquisite precision for the singular purpose of killing as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. It is not for deer hunting. It is for killing people.

The original M-16 was relentlessly refined to take enemy lives in combat. But you might know the version available in stores called an AR-15. Republicans and their bosses at the NRA believe almost anyone should be able to carry this weapon of war. That is right. Republicans honestly believe that this killing machine has a place in our communities. They think that a weapon very similar to one I carried in Al Anbar belongs on the streets of Phoenix.

That is idiotic, and I will explain why.

Republicans aren't just ignoring the voices of the thousands of victims. They are also denying basic physics. Because a round from an AR-15 is larger and leaves the muzzle traveling faster, it will impact the body without about three times more energy than a bullet from a handgun.

Surgeons treating the Parkland victims described organs that looked like ``overripe melons smashed by a sledgehammer.'' They talk about exit wounds as big as oranges. They recount opening bodies of these children, hoping to stem the bleeding, and discovering that, as one doctor put it, ``there was nothing left to repair.''

And here is the thing: that is not an unexpected outcome. Delivering fatal wounds that no surgeon can fix is the whole point of these weapons. That is precisely why they were given to us in combat.

The AR-15 also has a standard magazine of 30 rounds. Those 30 rounds are necessary if you are putting down suppressive fire or engaging insurgents. They are not very useful when you are hunting deer.

Mr. Speaker, I can confidently say that if you need more than a handful of shots to put down the deer, you are probably the problem, not the weapon.

In addition, the AR-15 has a significantly faster effective rate of fire than a bolt-action hunting rifle or a handgun. That means you can shoot more people in less time. That means police officers responding to the scene of a shooting will be outgunned and outmatched. That means more children will die in the classrooms before help can arrive.

I went through literally thousands of hours of training to become a marine. It was arduous and grueling. I was taught how to clean and care for my weapon. I had to pass a rigorous marksmanship test. I was only armed after I earned the privilege and responsibility for that weapon.

In contrast, my Republican friends think anyone should be able to walk into a sporting goods store anywhere in America and walk out with an AR-15.

When children are slaughtered in their classrooms, we respond with thoughts and prayers instead of smarter policies or stronger laws. We are asked to simply accept this bloodshed as an unavoidable fact of American life.

Not anymore.

How about this? Let's reform our background check system. Let's ban assault rifles and keep weapons of war out of our communities. Then, if people are truly desperate to fire those types of weapons, they can do what I did: go to www.marines.mil and enlist.

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