[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 26, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  HE STARED BLANKLY AT ME, THEN FIRED

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, during the holiday recess, Thomas F. 
McDermott had an op-ed piece in the New York Times.
  He was a passenger on the Long Island Railroad who went through a 
horrible experience. Fortunately, he lived.
  The message that he has for all of us is simple and direct: We have 
to act on gun control.
  I ask that the eloquent statement of Thomas F. McDermott be inserted 
into the Record at this point, and I urge my colleagues to read it.
  The statement follows:

                [From the New York Times, Dec. 17, 1993]

                  He Stared Blankly at Me, Then Fired

                        (By Thomas F. McDermott)

       Garden City, L.I.--One gun. Thirty rounds. Six dead.
       On Tuesday, Dec. 7, a man stared blankly at me in car No. 3 
     of the 5:33 Long Island Rail Road train out of Penn Station. 
     With a dazed look in his eyes, he fired at me from point-
     blank range. The Lord shone His countenance on me that day: I 
     was spared with only bullet wounds to my shoulder. Seventeen 
     others are still recovering. Six more--Amy Federici, James 
     Gorycki, Mi Kyung Kim, Maria Theresa Magtoto, Dennis McCarthy 
     and Richard Nettleton--were not so lucky.
       Colin Ferguson, whatever a jury will say about him, was a 
     crackpot with a gun in hand. No matter the verdict, no one 
     can credibly deny that we the American people, put that gun 
     in his hand.
       Staring down the barrel of a gun radicalizes. Before, like 
     many people of good will, I was a lukewarm supporter of 
     handgun control. Now I am a radical--a radical for the safety 
     of all of us, black and white. Guns and bullets know no 
     colors, no ethnicity.
       Race is not the issue here. For anyone to say that these 
     shootings were racist, or that politicians' responses have 
     been racist, misses the point and trivializes the horror.
       Next time, the tragedy may hit a little closer to home--
     your home or your neighbor's, if not necessarily that of your 
     representative or senator. That is why the people must take 
     over this debate if there is to be any change in the 
     availability of guns.
       If this matter is left wholly to the politicians, and if 
     past is prologue--the kind of past that left James Brady 
     paralyzed--the six casualties on that 5:33 will have died in 
     vain.
       Why did it take so long to pass the Brady bill (which, 
     sadly, at the end of they day was pretty toothless)? Why 
     didn't Ronald Reagan, the most popular President in recent 
     memory, support tougher gun control laws immediately after 
     the thwarted attempt on his life? Why did he voice support 
     only after leaving office? In an acronym: N.R.A.
       With its enormous financial resources, the National Rifle 
     Association finds all too many willing allies in Washington. 
     On a Sunday morning news program after last week's tragedy, 
     Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming went so far as to say that, 
     to his constituents, ``gun control'' is nothing more than an 
     indicator of how steady a person holds his gun.
       Enough. Neither the N.R.A. nor politicians in Washington, 
     glib and otherwise, can satisfactorily explain why the public 
     (with limited exceptions) should be entitled to purchase 
     automatic and semiautomatic weapons.
       This is not surprising, since there is no defensible reason 
     for allowing private citizens to possess such weapons.
       The issue we must focus on is achieving, true, enforceable 
     gun control. Whether this can be accomplished by 
     constitutional amendment, an expanded Brady law, gun 
     licensing or a combination of these approaches, there is no 
     room for moderation, nor for prolonged discussion and delay. 
     There must be an immediate ban on the kind of automatic 
     weapon that mowed down the riders on the 5:33.

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