Issue Position: Gun Rights
Issue Position
Proponents of gun rights overcame a significant hurdle this year when the Supreme Court handed down their 5-4 ruling, citing the Washington, D. C. gun ban was unconstitutional. The Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 was passed by the D.C. Council and signed into law in 1975, in order to decrease violent crime in the District. Statistics have shown that since the passage of the Firearms Control Act of 1975, violent crimes have increased in Washington, D.C. This law works to deny law-abiding citizens the right to arms and with that, the right to defend themselves. Such policy fails to recognize that criminals, not guns, are the root cause of crime and violence in America. I have consistently voted to protect American's second amendment rights.
In the 110th Congress, I have reintroduced the Citizens' Self-Defense Act of 2007 (H. R. 73), which protects the right of all Americans to own a gun and use it in the defense of self, family and home. The Citizens' Self-Defense Act reaffirms the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and puts criminals on notice that law abiding citizens can and will use deadly force, if necessary, to defend themselves, their family or their home. If we are to honor and uphold our Constitution, this right cannot be infringed.
It is illogical and unfair that current crime prevention tactics intend to make society safer by denying law abiding citizens the right to defend themselves with a firearm. Such policy fails to recognize that criminals, not guns, are the root cause of crime and violence in America. Making guns more difficult to obtain legally will only expand the black market, the primary source of firearms for criminals.
Thomas Jefferson once argued that, "laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." These words were as true then as they are today. It is upon such wisdom that my legislation was built.
I am a member of the Congressional Second Amendment Caucus.
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