Condemning the Horrific Attacks in Newtown, Connecticut, and Expressing Support and Prayers for all Those Impacted by This Tragedy

Floor Speech

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Mr. ENGEL. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I thank him for doing this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, I have been to Newtown, Connecticut, since I have cousins who live there. It's less than an hour's drive from my congressional district.

Today, we mourn all the people who lost their lives in Newtown on Friday, including 20 elementary school children and six educators.

Over the past few years, we've seen innocent lives tragically lost to gun violence in a supermarket parking lot in Arizona, a shopping mall in Oregon, a movie theater in Colorado, an Army base in Texas, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, a college campus in Virginia, and now an elementary school in Connecticut. The proliferation of combat-style weapons has spawned these tragedies, and it is long past time that we control them.

The Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms, but it does not guarantee an absolute right to military-style, high-caliber, semi-automatic, bulletproof-vest-piercing combat assault rifles with high-capacity magazines to anybody who wants them.

It just does not. And we must not let interest groups persuade us otherwise. We need sensible restrictions. We need sensible gun control legislation. We need them here, and we need them now. Our children are counting on us, and we really need to not let them down.

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