Jason Chaffetz Quotes

You can have all the gun control laws in the country, but if you don't enforce them, people are going to find a way to protect themselves. We need to recognize that bad people are doing bad things with these weapons. It's not the law-abiding citizens, it's not the person who uses it as a hobby.

Even though New York is the safest big city in the nation, there are still far too many illegal guns on our streets. Nearly all of them arrive from out of state - and most are sold by a small group of rogue gun dealers who refuse to obey federal laws.

I would feel horrible to think I had put my name on a pistol permit and allowed someone to carry around a gun and they committed another crime.

We're going to see fugitives and felons, eventually, being able to get guns much more easily.

Illegal guns don't belong on our streets and we're sending that message loud and clear. We're determined to see that gun dealers who break the law are held accountable, and that criminals who carry illegal loaded guns serve serious time behind bars.

No legislation is going to stop a criminal from getting a gun, and anybody who says it will is wrong. Criminals will get a gun no matter what they have to do. They'll steal it. They'll borrow it. They'll have someone else buy it for them.

While law enforcement officers are working hard in Illinois to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, they face a nearly impossible task because of weak gun laws in surrounding states.

One the most efficient ways to combat gun violence is to prevent criminals from obtaining guns in the first place.

We need a comprehensive strategy that includes expanding criminal background checks for all commercial gun sales, dedicated federal law to combat gun trafficking, and a strong commitment to mental health services.

We have to tighten our gun laws and keep guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill, and domestic abusers.

What sort of a brain-dead idiot does it take to actually believe that gun laws will prevent criminals from obtaining and carrying guns?

We are going to trace more effectively, how these guns are ending up on the streets, to unscrupulous gun dealers, who often times are selling to straw purchasers. And cracking down on the various loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the mentally ill.

The gun control mentality is ruthlessly absurd. It suggests that you pass a law which will bind law-abiding citizens — they won't have access to weapons. Now, we know that criminals, by definition, are people who don't obey laws. Therefore, you can pass all the laws that you want, they will still have access to these weapons, just as they have access to illegal drugs and other things right now. That means you end up with a situation in which the law-abiding folks can't defend themselves, and the crooks have all the guns.

They say if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. Well, those are precisely the people who need them!

Guns cause crime like flies cause garbage!

Don't condemn the gangbangers, they've got guns that are trafficked, that are not enforced, that are straw purchased and they come into places even that have strong gun laws. Why? Because we don't have sensible gun legislation.

The freedom-hating gun-grabbers do not care about reducing crime or saving lives, or they wouldn't be fighting for more gun-free zones where the most innocent lives are always slaughtered. Those squawking the loudest for banning guns from we the people will not get rid of their we-the-people tax-dollar-paid armed security guards.

No one earns $100 million. You steal $100 million.

If a law could keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be virtually no gun crime at all.

Strict gun laws are about as effective as strict drug laws...It pains me to say this, but the NRA seems to be right: The cities and states that have the toughest gun laws have the most murder and mayhem.

I think we can provide common-sense approaches to the issue of illegal guns that are ending up on the streets. We can make sure that criminals don't have guns in their hands. We can make certain that those who are mentally deranged are not getting a hold of handguns. We can trace guns that have been used in crimes to unscrupulous gun dealers that may be selling to straw purchasers and dumping them on the streets.

Under President (George W.) Bush, prosecution of gun crimes was 30 percent higher than it is under President Obama.

Gun control is not the answer to stop crimes committed with firearms.

There is no law in the world - there is no law unwritten, there's no law on the books - that's gonna stop a criminal from getting a gun.

We have to enforce the laws we've already got, make sure that we're keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill. I also share your belief that weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don't belong on our streets. And so what I'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally.