During a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz takes on the hypocrisy of the House Democrats who claim to be worried about violence in America.
Transcript
If House Democrats were so worried about violence they wouldn’t open the borders, open the prison, and then disarm law-abiding Americans who want to protect themselves and protect their families.
Chairman Nadler says that Republicans don’t, shouldn’t lecture, about constitutional rights, but it was the last Democrat speaker Mr. Cicilline who in the house Judiciary Committee said spare me the bullshit about people’s constitutional rights. So pardon us for standing up for the Constitution and the very due process that ensures that were able to have a civil functioning society in this country.
Speaker Pelosi asks the question, “will if you knew when the next act of violence would be, why wouldn’t you want to stop it?” What is this the United States Congress or the plot for the movie Minority Report. The best you could ever hope to have in terms of warning is what we had in the Parkland case, where a neighbor saw Nikolas Cruz preparing for a school shooting, called the FBI, and because they were so focused on the bureaucracy they didn’t take action. And so that’s why I’m against federalizing the regular police and it’s why I’m against federalizing the school police, because the more the FBI was involved, the more they botched the case, and maybe there were people dead who didn’t need to be.
These red flag laws violate our Second Amendment rights or Fifth Amendment rights, and when they are done at the national level, they violate our 10th Amendment rights. And it is crazy that we are considering legislation to bribe the states to take rights away from our fellow Americans. And it’s nuts that Republicans in the Senate, the very Republicans who say they’re the classic liberty-minded conservatives. They’re working with Democrats on this very endeavor, endeavor to Federalize the school police and to engage in this bribery for the sake of deprivation of rights.
Let me give you this warning, my friends. It is no victory, as Mr. Carbajal said, that in my beloved Florida we’ve used red flag laws 8000 times. There weren’t 8000 school shooters we stopped probably not even 8000 criminals. What we do see is that these red flag laws are used in divorce proceeding. There used in every type of dispute and it shouldn’t be cudgel that way. We’ll stand up for the rights and it’s no bullshit that we will.
Democrats Want To Strip Second Amendment Rights
Transcript
Nancy Pelosi tells us she’s on a crusade for the children. Someone should maybe remind the speaker the Crusades did not always end well when they were reflexively driven by emotion and riddled with poor planning. No, this is no Crusade for the children. If it were, you wouldn’t leave our children as sitting ducks in gun-free zone when they go to school everyday.
Speaker says we need action. Well, we’re action. How about the action of my bill to create a national Stand Your Ground law to strengthen self-defense, or Richard Hudson’s bill for national concealed carry, or any number of proposals Republicans have offered to unlock the safe and secure environment when we have our military veterans and are former members of law enforcement able to carry a firearm responsibly in schools to be able to respond to these acts of violence. No, their version of action is more gun control, raising the age to be able to buy certain firearms.
On November 25, 2021 a crazed lunatic with a knife broke into a home in El Paso and began assaulting a woman inside. The 20 year-old homeowner grabbed his rifle and killed the assailant. That’s action. In 2017 in Sutherland Springs, Texas a gunman opened fire inside the First Baptist Church. A good Samaritan grabbed his AR-15 and engaged the shooter stopping him from further carnage, a good use for an AR-15. In 2019 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma a 19 year old killed three would-be burglars who broke into his home. These situations happen every day. And there would be more death and more bloodshed if we were to accept these proposals from the Democrats.
But the Second Amendment isn’t about hunting or about self-defense. It is about power. It is about the power that is reserved in the citizenry to curate a balance so the Americans are not overrun by tyranny, and thank God we haven’t had to use the Second Amendment for the purpose that some might have envisioned necessary when our Founders were creating the Constitution. And that power belongs to the people, not to the Democrats trying to take their rights away and to make our schools less safe.
Transcript
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Well, we have heard the plan from Democrats. This is not a modest, trimming around the edges, of gun laws. It is been a full-throated assault on the Second Amendment, a desire to deprive people of the weapons did they choose, at the age that they achieve majority. And we’ve heard countless examples of where the good guy with the gun has been the difference between more or less bloodshed.
But this is particularly an aggrieved time to bring this legislation forward because we heard the Speaker of the House recently say that members of the Republican Party were members of a cult. So you now have house Democrats demeaning, defaming calling extremist, tens of millions of Americans while they try to disarm you and then subsequently defund the police. And so no good guys are coming when when the woke mob ends up at your door. That’s their plan for America and gun control, unrestrained gun control, is a key part of it.
And just like they said, they’ll pack of court, they’ll blow up the filibuster, they’ll abused every moori of this place for the opportunity to take down the Second Amendment. That’s what’s at issue. That’s what we’re fighting for. And Republicans in the United States Senate should not sign up for this charade. They should stand with our fellow Americans for the Constitution and with American gun owners. I yield back to the gentleman from Ohio.
