mr. speaker , i thank my colleague for giving me this opportunity to speak out against this rule . 
i have been here about 8 1/2 years now , and i came here without any political experience . 
but history had taught me that we , as americans , certainly fight for our democracy all of the time . 
yet over the years , i have seen democracy , especially in this great house , deteriorate continuously . 
i have seen where we go up to the rules committee continuously , because i always thought that when you came down to this great house , the whole idea was to have debate . 
and yet i see debate being challenged constantly . 
important issues that come on to this floor , the minority is not allowed to debate them , nor are we allowed to offer any kind of amendments to hopefully make a bill better . 
our voices are being shut constantly . 
this is not the democracy that i learned about when i was in school or the democracy that i believed in as i became an adult . 
last night in the rules committee , the majority voted against protecting police officers and voted to make it easier for felons to get guns . 
the committee rejected my amendment that would ban all armor-piercing ammunition . 
let me tell you about armor-piercing ammunition . 
that was used in the shooting back in 1993 that killed my husband and wounded my son . 
and it is only by the grace of god that my son survived . 
i can go into how many millions of dollars have been spent to make sure that my son could have a productive life . 
i can talk about his hand that was operated on , because once the bullet hit it , it shattered . 
we were lucky that we had anything to work with . 
and because he raised his hand , it only took off a little bit of his head . 
and these are bullets that we want to have on our streets ? 
but that amendment was not allowed . 
you can not even hunt with them . 
come on . 
i am hearing this debate on the second amendment . 
i believe in the second amendment . 
i will protect the second amendment . 
but that does not mean that we can not enforce the laws that are already on the books . 
you know , i have the bill , that would be the nics system , that would bring the national instant checks system up to where it should . 
you know , this is the month that we are supposed to be talking about domestic violence . 
and yet because of the way the states do not keep records , we have people that are not in the nics system . 
so if you want to talk about let us enforce the laws on the books , then let us pass a good nics system that would enforce the laws that are already on the books . 
too many of our felons are slipping through the cracks of the nics system . 
what i want to do is make sure that every state can come to the speed that they should be , when someone is found guilty in court , and they are being adjudicated to prison , that their rights of being able to buy a gun are taken away . 
you want to talk about that we have terrorists in this country , and we have a terrorist list , but they are allowed to buy guns . 
now , again , we keep hearing the rhetoric that goes back and forth in this hall all of the time that we are trying to take away the right of people to own guns . 
that is nonsense . 
but we can have gun safety issues put out into place so that we can bring down the number of 30 , 000 people killed in this country every year , so we can bring down the $ 100 billion that is spent every year on health care , loss of productivity , and using our police . 
think about what this hall and what this great house could do with $ 100 billion . 
maybe we could protect social security . 
maybe we could protect our health care system . 
maybe we can improve our educational system . 
you know , again , i am disappointed because i came here as an average citizen , honestly believing that a debate was good , whether people agreed or disagreed , made no difference . 
you had a debate and hopefully people would then make up their minds . 
let us not think that this bill is going to solve the problems that they are talking about . 
in a decade we have had over 15 million lawsuits . 
fifty-seven of them were against gun manufacturers . 
fifty-seven of them . 
and for this , and every other issue that we are taking away the right of victims to be able to have their day in court . 
our court system is working . 
our court system is set up the way the constitution wanted . 
and yet this body , with our republican friends , wants to take away the rights of people to have their day in court . 
i ask my colleagues to vote against this rule , to protect the integrity of this house , and not to protect the nra . 
