John Conyers

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez). (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, this is the most amazing piece of legislation that has never come out of the Committee on the Judiciary. What we do is in closing a loophole that has been graphically described by the gentleman from Florida is that we open up one, two, three, four, four new loopholes and reopen a loophole that had been closed previously. The gunrunner loophole, and I hope somebody on the other side wants to discuss this with me on their time. The gunrunner loophole. That means that nine vendors, there is a 10 vendor requirement here, nine vendors then could sell all the weapons they could bring in in a truck without being required to do background checks. The let's-step-outside loophole which allows vendors to complete their transactions by merely stepping out of the grounds of the gun show to make the deal. The roving vendor loophole which allows gun vendors to sell firearms with no background checks if they are simply walking the premises and not at any fixed location. The convicted felon loophole which weakens all instant background checks, thanks a lot, from 3 business days, to 72 consecutive hours. Get it? Is that hard for anybody to figure out, what that does? And then we go back and reopen a closed loophole, the Lee Harvey Oswald loophole, that would allow a gun dealer to ship a firearm across State lines directly to the private residence if any part of the transaction took place at a gun show. Now, what is the remedy? There are two opportunities to correct the problem. One is the McCarthy amendment and one, the second is the Conyers-Campbell bipartisan substitute, word for word are the same. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee). (Ms. LEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield the balance of my time to close debate on our portion of this very important proposal to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I say to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. McCollum), page one of the McCarthy amendment: `` `Gun show' is a term at which 50 or more firearms are offered or exhibited for sale and which there are two or more gun show vendors.'' How could that be a yard sale?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren), a member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes. (Mr. CONYERS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Roukema) be yielded 10 minutes to yield time en bloc as she may choose.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to begin our general debate on H.R. 2122 by yielding 4 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) the distinguished minority leader of the House. (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to recommit.

Mr. CONYERS. Yes, I am.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that this motion to recommit on behalf of myself, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott); the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak); the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green); and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), be extended to a total of 7\1/2\ minutes on each side.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), the minority whip.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I begin by apologizing to the now long list of Members that want to speak in opposition to the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), the ranking member of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I agree with the gentleman. Since all of us are brain alive and have not been bought off, now that we are outraged and we place blame and condemnation, what does the gentleman think else we might want to do today since we are dealing with this juvenile justice bill? Is there something besides just condemning and blaming?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. McCollum), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I want to agree with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) and let him know that I think out of this discussion we may be justifying even why we had a sense of Congress resolution in a bill this complex. But I would like to turn my colleagues' attention, as along with the author of this measure, to hearings we held in the Committee on the Judiciary on May 13 on youth, culture and violence, and what a panel it was. Well, there were several panels. But involved were Michael Medved, the film critic; Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association of America; Dr. Dewey Cornell, professor of clinical psychology, University of Virginia; and we are reproducing these hearings. What Michael Medved, at the same panel with Jack Valenti, suggested is that we desperately need a ratings, universal rating system to cover all elements of pop culture, a clear and consistent means of labeling movies, television, CDs, video games, so that consumers can make much more informed choices on the marketplace. He said, ``Even Hollywood's most shameless apologists must face the fact that the current situation with ratings and parental warnings amount to a chaotic incomprehensible mess.'' It is from there that I would like to throw this out to the author of the amendment and my friend from Georgia to see if this resonates at all with my colleagues in terms of where we may go from the sense of Congress resolution.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman), a ranking subcommittee member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin). (Mr. TANZIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to my friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Campbell).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Tauscher).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley).