Dear Friend, Perhaps you saw Congressional Democrats’ antics on the House floor this week. Liberals in Congress staged a sit-in; disrupting the work of the House of Representatives and refusing to do the job they are paid for until Congress votes on gun control bills that would also risk denying Americans their right to due process. As I explained on CNN, this type of disruption and obstructionism is beneath the dignity of Congress and amounts to an obvious political stunt. Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate defeated four separate gun restrictions with bipartisan opposition, so basic civics tells us these proposals aren’t getting to the President’s desk anytime soon. Importantly, it’s not just gun-rights supporters like me who oppose these proposals, even the ACLU has taken a position against such restrictions on Americans’ Constitutionally protected freedoms. For me, this issue is personal. As I shared with Nashville radio host Ralph Bristol last week, I was a victim of physical assault nearly 20 years ago on the streets of Nashville. I got my pistol and handgun carry permit afterwards so that if, God forbid, I was ever in that situation again, I would be empowered to defend myself from harm. I know that the 2nd Amendment is our right to self-defense and NO government should take that away from us. If Congress wants to take meaningful action to protect Americans from acts of violence, I believe we must address the real issue: radical Islamic terrorism. The fact is, another gun control law will not thwart the will of an Islamic extremist intent on doing harm. That is why we must extinguish this cancer at the source. Already, the House has passed nearly a dozen bipartisan, anti-terrorism bills since the start of last year. We’ve continued our work by also passing the National Defense Authorization Act, legislation giving our troops the tools needed to take the fight to ISIS and win. In typical fashion, President Obama has already threatened to veto this bill. The last four words of the 2nd Amendment read pretty clearly to me: “shall not be infringed.” As your representative, I’m committed to guarding these freedoms from government attack.
