WOLF BLITZER (HOST): First I want to ask you about the drama unfolding on the House floor, the sit in is because you won't bring this to a vote. House Democrats have tried to force a vote on all of this week on the questioning -- they're questioning how to prevent those on the terror watch list or no fly list from purchasing a gun. Here's a key point, a new CNN poll shows an overwhelming majority of Republicans, look at this, 90 percent of Republicans support that idea. So, why won't you at least allow a vote on this, on the floor of the House?
PAUL RYAN: First, I will tell you, Wolf, this is nothing more than a publicity stunt, that's point number one. Point number two, is this bill was already defeated in the United States Senate. Number three, we are not going to take away a citizen's due process rights, we're not gonna take away a citizen's constitutional rights without due process. That was already defeated in the Senate. And this is not a way to try to bring up legislation.
Now, let's focus on the issue at hand here, terrorism, and let's find out what we need to do to prevent future terrorist attacks. And if a person is on a terror watch list and they go try to buy a gun, we have procedures in place to deal with that. We want to make sure those that procedures are done correctly. And that's something we should be able to do in a calm, and cool manner without these sort of dilatory sort of publicity stunt tactics to try and bring a bill that already died over in the Senate to the House floor. That's just not any way to bring up a vote to the floor.
BLITZER: Why not at least allow -- why not at least allow a vote, up or down?
RYAN: Well first of all, they know that we will not bring a bill that takes away a person's constitutionally guaranteed rights without their due process. We don't agree with that, and the Senate already doesn't agree with that. The point here, Wolf, is this is a publicity stunt. They're trying to get you to ask me those questions for publicity's sake. This isn't trying to come up with a solution to a problem, this is trying to get attention.
BLITZER: As you know, a lot of the critics are blaming the National Rifle Association. We did some checking, over your 17 years in the Congress, you've received about $36,800 from the NRA. The NRA clearly doesn't support this legislation. Here's the question. Is the NRA the key reason that nothing is happening, either in the Senate or in the House of Representatives?
RYAN: No, the Constitution is.
BLITZER: Explain.
RYAN: People have a guaranteed right. The Heller case proves it. People have an individual, guaranteed right to Second Amendment rights. We're not going to take away a person's constitutionally guaranteed rights without due process.
