mr. speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
i want to address an issue we have not covered this morning , which deals with the question of terrorists trying to get their hands on guns in this country . 
we know from our reports and records that osama bin laden and other terrorists have said to their terrorist network that they can easily obtain weapons in the united states , and we know from a government accountability study from january of this year that between february 3 and june 20 of 2004 , 35 known or suspected terrorists , those are people who are on the terrorist watch list , purchased guns in the united states , and that from july 1 through october 31 of last year 12 additional people on the terrorist watch list purchased guns in the united states . 
now , i think many americans would be surprised to know that you can be on the terrorist watch list and you can go to the airport and try and board an airplane , and because you are on the terrorist watch list , we say no , we want to protect the public , we are not going to let you board this airplane and compromise the safety of other passengers on that plane . 
but that person can then get in their car at the airport , go to their local gun store and buy as many semiautomatic weapons as that terrorist wants . 
what is more , that person can walk into that gun store and say , hey , guess what ? 
i am on the terrorist watch list , and i want 12 semiautomatic assault weapons , and under this bill , if we pass it today , we could not hold that gun store owner liable in any way for a wrongful sale . 
how do i know that ? 
we offered an amendment in committee . 
very simple . 
let me read the language of the amendment . 
we said , we do not want to except from lawsuits and liability a seller who knows that the name of the person appears in the violent gang and terrorist organization file maintained by the attorney general and the person subsequently used the qualified product , the weapon , in the commission of a crime . 
we had a vote in committee on this amendment . 
every republican member of the committee voted no , every democratic member of the committee voted yes . 
the gentleman from california ( mr. waxman ) xz4004250 and i tried to get through the committee on rules an amendment so the whole house could consider this proposition . 
what did the committee on rules say ? 
no . 
it seems to me outrageous that we would pass a bill that would allow someone to walk into that gun store , the gun store owner knows that person is on the terrorist watch list , they sell the person a gun , the person goes out and murders people and , under this legislation , guess what ? 
you can no longer hold them liable . 
that is a shame . 
mr. speaker , i reserve the balance of my time . 
