I am grateful for the opportunity to testify on a matter of deep national interest. Regulation of the sale of firearms is, in my judgment, essential for the safety and welfare of the American people.

Every year, thousands of Americans are killed by firearms…The great majority of these deaths and crimes would not have occurred if firearms had not been readily available. For the evidence is clear that the availability of firearms is itself a major factor in these deaths…

Basically, this bill would subject deadly weapons to a lesser control than we have always imposed on automobiles, liquor, or prescription drugs. The use and sale of these things are carefully regulated by federal, state, and local government. The same should be true of firearms…

Nevertheless, the nation, Congress, and sportsmen have been subjected to a massive publicity campaign against this bill. This campaign has distorted the facts of the bill and misled thousands of our citizens. Those responsible for this campaign place their own minimal inconvenience above the lives of the many thousands of Americans who die each year as the victims of unrestricted traffic in firearms. The campaign is doing the nation a great disservice.

And in recent weeks, the campaign has taken a new and more vitriolic turn. Opponents of the legislation have suggested the need for people to arm themselves against civil disorder—an inflammatory invitation to help break down the law and order—and have implied that enactment of the bill would stop this “essential” process from taking place. The premise is destructive, and the conclusion irrational…

The time for enactment of this badly needed legislation is now, before one more senseless death occurs with a cheap mail-order weapon…

We have a responsibility to the victims of crime and violence. It is a responsibility to think not only of our own convenience but of the tragedy of a sudden death.

It is a responsibility to put away childish things, to make the possession and use of firearms a matter undertaken only by serious people who will use them with the restraint and maturity that their dangerous nature deserves—and demands. For too long, we have dealt with these deadly weapons as if they were harmless toys. Yet their very presence, the ease of their acquisition, and the familiarity of their appearance have led to thousands of deaths each year—and to countless other crimes of violence as well…

It is past time that we wipe this stain of violence from our land.