2002 Ron Paul 67:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Chairman, I rise in
support of the amendment, but I would
like to mention that this is essentially
the same amendment that I had prepared
to offer, an amendment that I
put into the RECORD 2 days ago. But I
will support this amendment because it
is essentially doing what I was anxious
to do.
2002 Ron Paul 67:2
Shortly after 9–11, as a matter of
fact, on September 17, I introduced legislation
into this body, H.R. 2896. It
would have taken care of this problem
in a more conclusive way, and it would
have removed all the prohibitions and
legalized, once again, the right of property
owners to defend their property.
2002 Ron Paul 67:3
Of course, that would be the ultimate
solution, as far as I am concerned, because
we are moving in a direction, unfortunately,
towards more dependence
on government and government regulation,
and government programs that
allow weapons in a cockpit.
2002 Ron Paul 67:4
An example I like to use, which I
think is an accurate example, if we
look at the inner cities, guns are denied
to the citizens. There are a lot of
police and there is a lot of crime. If we
look to the suburbs and the rural areas,
there are essentially no police, there
are a lot of guns in the homes, and
there are essentially no crimes.
2002 Ron Paul 67:5
That principle should be applied to
the airlines. It should be applied because
guns can prevent crime, and we
should allow them to be placed in the
hands of the owners. I have a tie that
is a favorite tie of mine, and it has a
picture of the Bill of Rights, but it has
a stamp over it which says, “void
where prohibited by law.” I think we
do too much of that around here.
2002 Ron Paul 67:6
A lot of times I get support from the
other side of the aisle when they see
the prohibitions that our legislation
places on the First Amendment. Likewise,
I get a lot of support when I
would like to reduce the prohibitions
on the Fourth Amendment in the area
of privacy. Unfortunately, since 9–11,
we have moved in the wrong direction.
We are making more prohibitions by
law on our Bill of Rights.
2002 Ron Paul 67:7
In this case we are moving in the
right direction because we are trying
to remove some prohibitions that are
limiting our Second Amendment
rights. Our job here in the Congress
should be to protect the Second
Amendment, never to get in the way of
the Second Amendment. This is why,
although this amendment improves the
bill and the bill is moving in that direction,
I can support it, but we ought
to do a lot more.
2002 Ron Paul 67:8
Another example of how private
property could work was the recent example
at LAX Airport. Private owners
of an airline assumed responsibility for
security at the gate. Many lives were
probably saved with El Al guards, private
guards with private weapons, that
tragically are denied to American airlines.
Because of an agreement between
one foreign airline and the U.S. Department
of Transportation, it has been
given permission to protect their people
better than we are allowed to protect
ourselves. That to me just seems
downright foolish, and I think we in
the Congress should demand our rights
of the Second Amendment and insist
on the responsibility of property owners
to protect their property and to
protect our lives.
2002 Ron Paul 67:9
We are moving in that direction, and
El Al deserves definite compliments,
but we deserve deep scrutiny. Why do
we permit a foreign airline to provide
more security for their people than we
are allowed in our country?
2002 Ron Paul 67:10
The best step in the world, of course,
would be to pass my bill, H.R. 2896,
which would just legalize once again
the Second Amendment and allow our
airlines to make the decision, and let
the people decide. The airlines that
say, we have guns in the cockpit, I
would go fly that airline; if they say
no, we do not believe in guns, let it be.
2002 Ron Paul 67:11
We need to, once again, believe in
America, believe in freedom, believe in
the Bill of Rights, and let the people
take care of so many of these problems
instead of getting in the way. This bill,
fortunately, is helping to get the government
out of the way. That is why I
support it.
