S.Amdt. 271

SA 271. Mr. LAUTENBERG submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 23, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Governments for fiscal year 2004 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2003 and for fiscal years 2005 through 2013; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 79, after line 22, add the following:

SEC. 308. FIREARMS AND TERRORISM.

(a) Finding.--On January 17, 2003, at his confirmation hearing to be Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge stated, “[W]hen anyone uses a firearm, whether it's the kind of terrorism that we are trying to combat with Al Qaeda and these non-state terrorists, or as a former district attorney involved in the conviction of an individual who used firearms against innocent citizens, regardless of how we define terrorism, that individual and that family felt that they were victims of a terrorist act. Brandishing a firearm in front of anybody under any set of circumstances is a terrorist act and needs to be dealt with.”.

(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that the statement of Tom Ridge under subsection (a) accurately describes the link between the use of firearms and acts of terrorism.