"Like flat earth fanatics, Second Amendment fanatics just don't get it. Facts are facts. The earth is not flat. And Constitutional law is Constitutional law. The Second Amendment is not absolute. It does not guarantee the mythical individual right to bear arms we will hear argued for today. The gun lobby and its friends in Congress can line up professors of history and law from here to NRA headquarters and back. They can all swear what they think the Second Amendment means, and how many angels can dance on a pinhead. But the settled law is flatly against them." —
Charles Schumer (D-NY), co-sponsor of the Brady Act, in a statement before the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Crime, April 5, 1995.
"Gun traffickers have found a new avenue for dealing guns to criminals, to the mentally ill, and the under-aged — the Internet. The firepower available on the Internet is chilling. Machine guns, assault weapons and cheaply made pistols are available in cyberspace for the taking. And they are available to those who could never buy a gun under the Brady law." —
Charles Schumer, March 16, 1999.
"Since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, those who believe the federal government should shrink have had the upper hand. Sept. 11 changed all that. For the foreseeable future, the federal government will have to grow. The next few years will more closely resemble the mid-1930s, when federal power dramatically increased; but this new deal will involve an overarching federal effort to bring physical, not economic, security to our people." —
Charles Schumer, Washington Post, December 11, 2001; Page A33
"Let's put some real teeth into laws regulating gun owners. They should be licensed, finger-printed, show competence with their gun, and prove they are sane enough to use it responsibly. They should have to renew their license every two years." —
Charles Schumer