Gun Shows - Congressional Record: February 10, 1999 (House)

by Rod Blagojevich

           GUN SHOWS

(Mr. BLAGOJEVICH asked and was given permission to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BLAGOJEVICH. Mr. Speaker, there is no evidence that Timothy McVeigh and cult leader David Koresh ever actually met. But if they had, it is a good bet it might have been at a gun show.

McVeigh financed some of his terrorist activities by selling at gun shows firearms he stole from an Arkansas gun collector. It was at gun shows that Koresh purchased many of the weapons he later stockpiled at his Branch Davidian compound.

The Brady Bill has stopped over a quarter of a million handgun sales to criminals, but there is a gaping loophole. Background checks are not required at gun shows. Last year there were nearly 5,000 gun shows in America where anyone can buy as many firearms as they want with no questions asked. That is how a criminal in Florida with 16 felony convictions purchased firearms and killed four people in a one-day shooting spree.

Last weekend in his national radio address, President Clinton announced a report confirming that gun shows are becoming a buyer's mecca for criminals, with over 56,000 illegal firearms transfers.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to act. There should not be a place anywhere in America where criminals can buy guns with no questions asked.

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