John Conyers

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Georgia [Ms. McKinney].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the dear gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Barr], if he would reread the Washington Post, which he does not like much anyway, it has nothing to do with assault weapons, the measure that is before us today. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Schumer], the one man in the House of Representatives that has worked consistently across the year when he was the chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, and throughout his career on crime issues, the leader on the assault weapons ban.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, that is the kind of rhetoric Members are going to get all day. We are going to constantly get the baseball bat analogy and a lot of other silliness, when the fact of the matter is that this list was shortened because of the people that support the NRA that made us shorten the list. We wanted a longer line. Now that we do not have it, well, it should be a lot longer. Why is it not a lot longer?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Barr] the hearings the gentleman is talking about had nothing to do with the bill that is on the floor today. Maybe the gentleman remembers it or maybe he forget it, but to represent that we have had these hearings, that this has been considered in the manner that the gentleman suggests, is not quite accurate, sir. That is why I take this time to point that out. Sorry the gentleman was not paying attention.

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

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee], one of our very thoughtful members of the Committee on the Judiciary. (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum], is a Tec-9 a good gun or a bad gun? Well, let us talk about, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer], automatic and semiautomatic weapons. They tested, among, in the San Jose police department, they test-fired an Uzi, a 30-round magazine was emptied in slightly less than 2 seconds on full automatic, while the same magazine was emptied in just 5 seconds on semiautomatic. In other words, on semiautomatic assault weapons, you can fire 300 rounds a minute. The only reason it could not be done is the magazine will not hold that many. It can be done because here is a police test. It can be done. Oh, you do not like 300? How about 150 a minute?

Mr. CONYERS. If the gentleman will yield, you do not need to know that.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Nadler], a member of the committee who has worked on this subject matter for a considerable period of time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, I do not know where my friend the distinguished member of the Judiciary Committee [Mr. Barr] was yesterday, but the Fraternal Order of Police were here again to beg us not to repeal this ban. The International Association of Police Chiefs are unanimous in opposing this repeal of the weapons ban. The Sheriffs Association. The National Association of Police Officers. Every organization of police in the United States of America supports the assault weapons ban. Every one. All. 100 percent. No exceptions. And so the gentleman unfortunately is in error. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield 15 minutes of my time to the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays], a leader on the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, and I ask that he be given permission to yield time in blocks.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Oregon [Ms. Furse] (Ms. FURSE asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez]. (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 20 seconds to the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Luther].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Engel].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Gutierrez].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Durbin].

Mr. CONYERS. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I certainly am.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Barcia] my dear friend and Democratic colleague, and I are going to continue our discussion at the annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner at Covell Hall in Detroit tomorrow. So stay tuned. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Markey] who has worked very hard on this matter.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds. Mr. Speaker, I would like the gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher] to know that, yes, motives were being raised by the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran]. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Maloney], a distinguished member of the Committee on Government Operations.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Lowey].

Mr. CONYERS. I do not know, and you do not either. That is not the point.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds for the attention of the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Schiff]. Now, Steve, you know that there is a floating list of requirements, and that bayonet mount that you keep laying up here is 1 of 7 or 10 items. So, please stop taking advantage of the House. As a matter of fact, it is folding-telescoping stock, protruding pistol grip, bayonet mount that drives you furious, threaded muzzle or flash suppressor, or grenade launcher. All of those are stated. Mr. Speaker, I yield 10 seconds to the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Schiff].

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Roybal-Allard]. (Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, an UZI is one of the assault weapons considered a weapon of choice for drug traffickers, street gangs, and paramilitary extremist groups. The NRA and the Republican majority want to make this and other cop-killing guns readily available. To do that, they will have to repeal the assault weapons ban--a ban that over 70 percent of the American public favors because it makes the streets safer for our children. UZI's have no purpose other than to kill people. They are not hunting weapons, they are not used for target practice, they are just used to kill people. An UZI pistol was used on May 16, 1993, when a man who had been kicked out of a rural Fresno, CA, bar returned the next day with a friend and opened fire, killing seven people and wounding two others. This was the worst massacre in Fresno's history. An UZI semiautomatic rifle was one of the guns used by James Oliver Huberty, an out-of-work security guard, when he walked into a San Ysidro, CA, McDonald's and killed 21 people. If we want to avoid more massacres like these, we need to maintain the assault weapons ban. It is America's children, not the National Rifle Association that this Congress should be protecting. But tomorrow, when many of my colleagues vote to repeal the assault weapons ban, they will be voting to give violent criminals everywhere greater access to deadly weapons that can be used to murder our children, our parents, our brothers and sisters, and our friends. The Republican party is always claiming that it stands on principle. Now it can stand on the principle of more dead children.