[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 22, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                               BRADY BILL

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I just want to bring to the attention of 
the Members of the Senate an article that appeared in the Washington 
Times this morning. It is as a result of a memo to Attorney General 
Janet Reno from an Assistant Attorney General Walter Dellinger. It came 
on Saturday. The Washington Post covered it and the Washington Times 
covered it this morning.
  The memorandum explained that the Federal Government had no ability 
to enforce a background check requirement on the new Brady bill.
  Let me repeat that. It was a statement I had made on the floor during 
the heat of the debate on the Brady bill, that the Government had no 
authority to enforce it; that if State law enforcement officers chose 
not to use this law, that they could walk away from it. And that is 
exactly what is going on in the Justice Department today.
  What did our friends on the other side who were using the political 
placebo of the Brady bill tell us year after year? ``This is not a 
slippery slope toward gun control. It works because it requires law 
enforcement to do a background check on handgun purchases. It has 
teeth. It will stop crime.''
  Let me repeat, a memorandum from Assistant Attorney General Walter 
Dellinger to Janet Reno saying we have no authority, Mr. President, to 
enforce the Brady bill. I think it is important that the Record show 
that, as we begin another extensive debate on the false illusion that 
somehow if we take the rights of law-abiding citizens away from them in 
their ability to own guns that we will make the streets of America 
safe. That is false politics, and anybody who engages in it on this 
floor must now go tell their Attorney General: Can you enforce a phony 
piece of legislation, or is it merely a political cover during an 
election year process?
  I yield back the floor
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SASSER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SASSER. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

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