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Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the nomination of Eric Holder for the position of Attorney General of the United States. We place enormous trust in the nominee for this position to not only enforce the laws of our land but also to advise the President on legal and constitutional matters. One of the important freedoms that we have in the Constitution is the right to keep and bear arms, guaranteed to us in the second amendment of the Constitution. Many jurisdictions around our country do not have the ability to own a gun, and there are restrictions in jurisdictions all over our country for the use of a gun. Nowhere is it more strict than in Washington, DC.
In 1976, in Washington, DC, the City Council passed the toughest gun control laws in the Nation, banning handguns and requiring rifles and shotguns to be registered, stored unloaded, and either locked or disassembled. These were the most restrictive laws in our Nation regarding gun ownership. I thought they were not only incomprehensible but certainly unconstitutional.
I introduced a bill with a number of my colleagues to repeal these prohibitive measures.
This prohibition, however, was challenged in court before my bill could get through Congress, and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that the District's ban was unconstitutional.
When the District appealed to the Supreme Court, I filed an amicus brief with our colleague Jon Tester that was supported by 53 Senators and 250 Members of the House of Representatives. This was on the interpretation of the second amendment as preserving an individual right to keep and bear firearms. Our brief contained the most congressional signatures on any amicus brief ever in the history of our country.
In another amicus brief in this same district court opinion that was appealed to the Supreme Court, the nominee before us, Mr. Holder, along with 12 other former Justice Department officials, argued in favor of the gun ban in Washington, DC. His brief stated:
The second amendment does not protect firearms possession or use that is unrelated to participation in a well-regulated militia.
Fortunately, on June 2, 2008, the Supreme Court affirmed the intent of the Founders: that the right to bear arms is an individual right protected by the Constitution. This was a major ruling on the second amendment because local governments that seek gun control measures have made the argument that Mr. Holder made in his brief. That is the basis for gun control ordinances and laws around our country.
The ruling in the DC case was a victory for the rights of all Americans to protect themselves and their families. The Supreme Court sent a clear message that the law of the land, the individual right to keep and bear arms, cannot be unreasonably infringed.
The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they put the right to keep and bear arms in the Constitution. They knew from their experience in the Revolutionary War that a free people must have the right to possess and bear arms. In 1775, the American Revolution started because ordinary farmers decided to fight back against foreign tyranny. Many in George Washington's regiments used their own guns.
I was alarmed to learn that while serving as Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration, Mr. Holder said in an appearance on ABC's ``This Week'' that the second amendment ``talks about bearing guns in a well-regulated militia. And I don't think anywhere it talks about an individual.''
This interpretation, while interesting in academic circles, is not mainstream, nor is it reflective of public opinion. Indeed, in our brief that we filed, we cited every congressional action that has happened throughout the history of our country that affirmed that Congress believes the second amendment is an individual right.
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Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, the Framers did not intend for this right to be collective. If that was their purpose, it would have been satisfied with article I, section 8 of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power ``to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel Invasions.''
The Framers went further than that. They wanted to ensure that gun ownership was recognized by posterity as an individual right. They put it in the Bill of Rights for that purpose. It is a compilation of individual rights of free speech, freedom of religion, a fair trial, and the right to keep and bear arms.
The Framers looked at the governments of Europe. James Madison said:
The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people with arms. If they did, the people would surely shake off the yoke of tyranny, as America did.
Later on, President Madison explained:
The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed, which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
The right to bear arms should not be an issue in the United States. The Constitution is clear, and the Supreme Court has spoken. Our Second Amendment right ensures that our people have the ability to secure all of our rights and defend them, if necessary, from government suppression. It is this right that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people must never extinguish.
I believe that Eric Holder, from everything I have read, is an intelligent, experienced, and thoughtful candidate to be the U.S. Attorney General. But after examination of Mr. Holder's public statements and positions on gun rights, I cannot in good conscience support his nomination for the office of Attorney General, and I, therefore, will vote no.
Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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