OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2003

Date: June 23, 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Criminal Justice


LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS SAFETY ACT OF 2003 -- (House of Representatives - June 23, 2004)

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act is a commonsense piece of legislation that will make our communities safer by allowing qualified law enforcement officers to carry their concealed firearms across State lines. Criminals do not recognize jurisdictional boundaries, particularly when it comes to seeking revenge against the police officers who arrested them.

If a doctor were traveling on vacation and he came across a child in a traffic accident who needed CPR to save his life, our society would expect the doctor to be a good Samaritan and save the child's life, regardless of State boundaries.
Similarly, law enforcement officers are, in effect, always on duty; and we are right to expect a police officer to come to the aid of a crime victim, and we are right to give that police officer the ability to provide that help by passing this important law.

If our airline pilots have the ability to carry firearms across jurisdictional boundaries, surely our police officers should have that same right.

Without this law, a police officer from Orlando, Florida, who wanted to take his family on a vacation to D.C. to see the monuments would have to travel through six separate States where he would face an instant patchwork of concealed weapons laws which would make it legal for him to have a gun in some jurisdictions and illegal in others. This law solves that problem and enhances the ability of that officer to defend his family and our communities.

For these reasons, I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation and was a vocal advocate in passing the bill through the Committee on the Judiciary in a clean form. It is a very popular bill. It has 296 cosponsors in the House. It passed the Senate by a vote of 90 to 8 as an amendment to another piece of gun legislation. It is supported by police officers
and other organizations across the U.S.

In summary, Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill, and I urge my colleagues to vote "yes" on H.R. 218.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

arrow_upward