Defending Right to Bear Arms

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for holding this important Special Order to highlight a basic right that we all share and love and that makes us who we are as Americans.

Madam Speaker, I rise tonight to discuss President Biden's misuse of the executive order and its harmful impact on law-abiding citizens.

In 1789, George Washington penned the first executive order, directing the heads of his departments to submit reports on their operations.

In 1957, my fellow Kansan, Dwight D. Eisenhower used the executive order to send Federal troops to integrate public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Nearly every United States President has issued executive orders like these to instruct the government how to work within the parameters set by the Congress and the Constitution. Until now.

In his first 10 days as President, Joe Biden issued 25 executive orders, more than the last seven Presidents combined in their first 10 days. And the list continues to grow. Today, we are up to nearly 60 executive orders and more executive actions and memoranda than I care to count.

The power to issue executive orders is derived from Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, which states that the President ``shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.''

When orders are based in facts and stakeholder engagement, like those we saw with Washington and Eisenhower, they work well to steward the execution of said laws. When the power to issue an executive order is abused, though, used to strong-hand the minority or circumvent Congress, the orders become a dangerous tool to undermine the American people and our democracy. This is what is happening right now.

President Biden recently penned six anti-Second Amendment executive actions in one day, banning handmade guns altogether; defining a pistol as a short-barreled rifle, allowing for more intense regulation; and mandating a report on gun gifting and trading.

In a recent interview on gun control, a spokesperson for President Biden stated: ``The President will not wait for Congress to act before the administration takes our own steps, fully within the administration's authority and the Second Amendment.''

We can no longer sit idle and watch dozens of executive orders from a single administration attempt to dictate the direction of our country with no input from this Congress. Congress was created to legislate.

Governing by executive order is not legislating. That is why I introduced H.R. 716, the More Accountability is Necessary Now Act, requiring the executive branch to notify the American public and this Congress with its intent to issue any new executive order or revoking any executive order that pertains to our Second Amendment rights.

I also introduced H.R. 1758, the Home Defense and Competitive Shooting Act, pushing back on President Biden's intent to redefine pistols as short-barreled rifles and eliminating the prohibition on transporting short-barreled rifles in interstate commerce.

I invite my colleagues to cosponsor both of these pieces of legislation as we stand up against any efforts, including shameful executive overreach, to diminish or weaken the rights of law-abiding Americans to own, carry, and use firearms.

The Second Amendment is a load-bearing wall in our Constitution. If you weaken a load-bearing wall, it is bad for the entire structure.

We must and we will push back against the relentless attacks on our Second Amendment rights.

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