Issues of the Day

Floor Speech

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Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 684, the resolution condemning Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham's unconstitutional actions violating New Mexicans' Second Amendment rights.

The Second Amendment is not an optional legal provision that bureaucrats can toss aside at their whim. It is a fundamental principle to ensure that every law-abiding citizen has the God-granted right to protect themselves, their families, their property, and their liberties.

Growing up in the Deep South, I witnessed how Black Codes and Jim Crow laws unjustly restricted minority communities from owning firearms. In the mid-1950s, Martin Luther King, Jr., kept firearms for self-protection, but his application for a concealed weapons permit was denied because of racist gun control laws in his State.

Gun control laws proposed by Democrats and State legislatures, Congress, and the White House aggressively erode our basic constitutional rights. As it was in the civil rights era, the Black community has seen this movie before. As Democrats abridge our rights to self-protection, they legislate away the commonsense tools for Black Americans to protect themselves. As they push ``defund the police'' and ``soft on crime'' policies, it is the urban Black community that suffers. We are now experiencing all-time highs in homicide, robbery, car thefts, physical assaults, and destruction of Black-owned businesses.

House Republicans will never waver in our commitment to defend the rights of all law-abiding citizens, regardless of race, creed, color, or ZIP Code. We will continue to fight to safeguard Americans' inalienable rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. It is an honor to lend my support to this House resolution. I pledge to continue to champion the Second Amendment rights of all Americans. I thank Representative Johnson for bringing us together for this purpose.

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