mr. speaker , it is with a great deal of pride that i rise today to support both this rule and the underlying bill and to point out to my good friend on the other side that this is a bipartisan bill , and it is a bill that is designed to reach a major problem in our country today , which is the rise of violent gang crime .  when i listen to some of our opponents talk about this bill , they always use the term `` antisocial behavior , '' and i can tell you from studying gangs for over 10 years , it is not antisocial behavior that we are talking about .  let me , mr. speaker , tell you what we are talking about .  we are talking about machete attacks , witness intimidation , extortion , cold-blooded assassination , rapes , cutting off people 's fingers , cutting off their arms , cutting off their heads .  but what concerns me the most , mr. speaker , is the metamorphosis i have seen in violent gang activity across our country .  first of all , there has been a huge change in numbers .  my good friend from georgia mentioned earlier that , as we sit here and debate this bill , there is probably between 750 , 000 to 850 , 000 gang members in the united states .  to put that in perspective , if they were an army from a foreign country , it would be the sixth largest army in the world .  and that is not waiting to get in our borders , but already here .  their violence has increased enormously .  in some of these gangs , in order to be able to get in , if you are a woman , you have to be raped in , for 30 minutes by six different individuals .  if you are a male , you have to be either beaten in or , to some of the gangs , you have to murder somebody to get into the gang .  and they have become national and international in scope .  no longer are we talking about the old jets and sharks from west side story ; we are talking about gangs that are across the country that have boards of directors outside the prisons , boards of directors inside the prisons , and they are ordering violent activity .  they may be in los angeles , but they are ordering the violence in another part of the country .  their recruitment is now reaching as low as the elementary schools , and their motivation to join is no longer just a fear or a want to belong to something .  today , many people feel if they do not join the gang , they will be beaten or intimidated by the gang .  so it is the presence of the gang and the fear and intimidation of the gang that is drawing them there .  also , one of the things that concerns us most is that many of these gangs have become the most proficient smugglers of individuals and weapons in the country , and it is a small linkage between the gang activity that we are seeing and their connection with organized terrorist activity .  what this bill says is that , if you join a violent criminal gang and you commit a gang crime , you will go to jail for a long time , or you will help us bring down that network .  what this bill says is that , if you are a gang leader , you can no longer order violence in one part of the country by a 16- or 17-year old and expect to go scot-free , because the federal , state and local government is coming after you .  it also says that we are going to use the combined strength of the federal , state and local government to protect citizens in our own borders from the domestic terror they face from gangs .  mr. speaker , i would suggest that if this bill fails , we might as well put a sign on a billboard that says `` coming to a neighborhood near you soon , '' because that is the growth we are seeing in violent gangs .  my good friend just raised in his opposition to the bill the support of the california gang investigators association .  they support this bill .  the fraternal order of police supports this bill .  the national latino peace officers association supports this bill .  the national association of police organizations supports this bill .  the major chiefs of law enforcement departments across the country support this bill .  the national troopers coalition supports this bill .  mr. speaker , i hope we will support this bill and make it into law and protect our citizens .  