[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 11 (Tuesday, February 8, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 HOMICIDES BY GUNSHOT IN NEW YORK CITY

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, last week, I delivered my first weekly 
report to the Senate on the number of homicides by gunshot in New York 
City. I rise again today to announce that last week, there were 23 such 
homicides in the city of New York.
  Mr. President, we are in the midst of a public health epidemic. These 
often random killings will continue unless we restrict or heavily tax 
handgun ammunition. Not ammunition used primarily to hunt or for target 
practice. But rounds used by drug dealers, rounds that emergency room 
doctors must remove from the bleeding bodies of gunshot victims, rounds 
that injure, rounds that maim, rounds that kill.
  Some opponents of ammunition or handgun control assert that ownership 
of a handgun could very well thwart an attempted burglary, homicide, 
rape, or assault. This could not be further from the truth.
  According to New York Newsday, at 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday January 25, 
1994, Mr. Ray Simms ``was shot twice in the side with his own gun after 
he shot his landlord during a dispute over heat in his building. * * * 
Simms died later at Harlem Hospital Center.'' Killed with his own gun, 
Mr. President. None of us know why Mr. Simms had purchased this gun. 
But what a tragic irony indeed if he did buy it for protection. 
According to the October 7, 1993 issue of the New England Journal of 
Medicine, keeping a firearm in the home is associated with a risk of 
homicide nearly three times as high. Simms' death, sadly, illustrates 
this point.
  Mr. President, following the President's Day recess, I will again 
report to the Senate on the number of persons killed in New York City 
by gunshot. There will probably be 40 or so victims. And we will 
continue to do nothing as more and more people will die.
  We must take action now and ban the most nefarious rounds and tax 
others. We must act to save lives.
  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been suggested. 
The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to called roll.
  Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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