Gun Control and Americans' Second Amendment Rights

Floor Speech

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Mr. HUDSON. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, I want to voice my strongest opposition to the Obama administration's continued assaults on our Second Amendment rights.

After seeing his gun control agenda fail in the Democrat-controlled Senate, President Obama is once again trying to go around the will of the American people and unilaterally take action through executive fiat.

This latest effort to unconstitutionally restrict one of our most fundamental rights has nothing to do with safety and security and has everything to do with government control. This is neither what the American people want nor deserve.

In fact, the executive action the President announced yesterday would not have prevented the recent tragedies our Nation has experienced, including the San Bernardino attack. Instead, it would trample the rights of law-abiding citizens. It could actually have a chilling effect on people seeking help for mental illness.

Nobody wants to see guns in the hands of someone who is dangerous because of mental incapacity, but we really need to look at the consequences of this type of action. It is just common sense. If folks believe that they could potentially lose their rights for simply seeking mental health, it is going to be a deterrent to folks actually seeking that help.

Let me give you an example. In our country, we have an absolute tragedy of veteran suicide. If one veteran who returns home from the conflict doesn't seek help for issues that may have arisen from that service, then shame on the President for this action. If they are afraid that if they go seek help, that one day they could lose their gun rights the rest of their life, what a deterrent effect that might have on a population that desperately needs help.

We will never regulate people's actions by regulating their freedoms. If that were the case, then the streets of Chicago would be some of the safest streets in America, because they have some of our strictest gun control laws.

Rather than infringing on our Second Amendment and governing by executive fiat, this administration should work with Congress on commonsense reforms that would actually reduce gun violence, like confronting our mental health crisis and preventing criminals and terrorists from actually entering our country in the first place.

Mr. Speaker, like many of my constituents back home in North Carolina, I am a responsible, law-abiding gun owner who cherishes our Second Amendment freedom. This right to keep and bear arms is a freedom by which we protect all of our other freedoms as a fundamental first freedom. For that reason, I encourage my colleagues in the House to stand with me against the President's proposed executive actions.

I want to thank the gentleman from Indiana for organizing this tonight and bringing us together for this very important discussion.

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