BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PASCRELL. I had to make a choice on this bill, whether I would support a disputable constitutional issue about whether you can by law carry a concealed weapon or move towards the other side to those who oppose this.

Now, who opposes this legislation besides me? Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and the Police Foundation oppose this bill. Doesn't this mean anything to you at all? Doesn't it? Or does it?

I prefer community policing than try to put more guns into the hands of those people who we don't even know are going to be trained to even use them. That's my preference, Mr. Chairman.

This means my home State of New Jersey--this is not Idaho, this is not Montana--in fact, we have the most densely populated State in the Union. There is a different culture. When Clinton argued on behalf of gun possession when he was the President of the United States, he always made this point about the cultural differences in different parts of the country. And we respect that.

I'm not against the Second Amendment. I support the Second Amendment. But I don't want those folks in the street who out-arm and out-gun our police officers.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PASCRELL. Twelve thousand fewer police officers we have in this country; 12,000 fewer police officers in our streets. We should be worried about that as a priority rather than this as a priority.

So I made the decision. The evidence is like this against doing this. We haven't had any legislation which took away one gun in the past 20 years from anybody in this country--not one. So we have made the perception being that we want to take guns away from people.

How dare you even say it.

Protect our police. Don't vote for this.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT