Whip Place: 2025 H5436 SUB A - RI Assault Weapons Ban Act of 2025 / House Judiciary (6325)

I believe there's a famous saying, those that desire security at the expense of liberty wind up with neither. The history of gun control is a history of fear and the seeking of security. In the 1960s, the newest contemporary firearms laws came out of this in 64, 65. Ronald Reagan, the Federal Firearms Control Act, came out of the fear of the Black Panthers and a militarized left that the government feared. And Americans allowed their rights to be taken away with those laws, rights that I believe we have. We've continued today. We've moved this bill out of fear at the expense of individual liberty. And the liberty I speak of is when it's all said and done, no one that looks like me is going to be sent to jail for this bill unless I fire on somebody who comes through my door. That's the only circumstance where someone who looks like me is going to be charged for this bill. The liberty, the way this bill is going to be used is it will be used to stack charges, additional tools in the toolbox. When a prosecutor says a tool in the toolbox, it's an additional charge they stack onto somebody who can't afford competent counsel to blackmail them into a plea bargain because the prosecutors don't want to go to trial and the public defenders don't have the time or the financing to go to trial. So there's the liberty. All this bill is going to be used for. This isn't going to stop anything. These bills don't stop. Prohibition doesn't stop anybody from doing anything. Prohibition just makes us feel safe. The war on drugs, making drugs illegal made us feel safe. But it caused all the problems we have in our cities today. The war on drugs was a failure. And now we're trying to move into a war on guns that came out of the war on drugs because somehow we feel unsafe. And the expense, we exchange safety, we exchange it for liberty. We take the safety and somebody's liberty is taken away. And again, I'm very unlikely to be charged with this bill at any time in my natural life. But I can tell you right now, the majority of the people who've been charged with the High Capacity Magazine, I made this argument on the floor when we argued the High Capacity Magazine. The majority of the people, the vast majority of people who are being charged with High Capacity Magazine don't look like me. Nor will the people who get charged with this assault weapons ban in the future. And I'm not going to have that on my conscience. I will be opposing this bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.