[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 53 (Thursday, May 5, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    GUN LAWS DO NOTHING ABOUT CRIME

  Mrs. BENTLEY. Mr. Speaker, I am speaking this evening under special 
orders since there was not enough time available today during the 
debate on H.R. 4296.
  Mr. Speaker, yesterday's Baltimore Evening Sun included an editorial 
urging me to vote in favor of the assault weapon ban that the House 
will consider today.
  This editorial recounted a vicious bank robbery that occurred in my 
district 2 years ago in which an assault weapon was used, and asks how 
I can even consider voting against this bill following that tragic 
incident.
  I would like to share with the House a letter that I received late 
yesterday afternoon from one of the victims of this tragic incident. 
The letter reads:

       Dear Representative Helen Bentley: I am a survivor of the 
     Randallstown Farmer's Bank Robbery, which occurred on October 
     26, 1992. The robbery was done by two males who entered the 
     bank and had four women employees lie face down on the vault 
     floor and then proceeded to shoot all of us. Their intent 
     when they entered the bank was to kill all of us leaving no 
     witnesses. I was shot twice with a MII Cobray semi-automatic 
     hand gun. I saw two of my employees and friends killed, and 
     one other employee critically wounded.
       I am writing to tell you to please vote against any gun 
     bill. I suppose you are asking why, since I was a victim. 
     Guns do not do the killing, people do. I am a target shooter 
     and enjoy target shooting with rifle, pistol and shotgun. No 
     matter how many gun laws you put on the books, if a person 
     wants to commit a violent crime they can always obtain a gun 
     illegally if not legally. What we need to do is enforce the 
     laws we already have. The police and lawyers do their jobs, 
     but our judicial system is what needs to be looked into. The 
     penalty to offenders needs to fit the crime with no parole. 
     Criminals should serve full sentences, not let out on good 
     behavior. We need to use the death penalty* * *.
       Taking the gun privileges away from the sportsmen and 
     individual to protect their property will do not good* * *. 
     My prayers will be with you as you make your decision. I 
     strongly urge you to vote against the gun bill* * *.

  Mr. Speaker, this letter is signed by Ms. Barbara M. Aldrich of 
Sykesville, MD, who was one of the victims, one of the survivors of the 
Randallstown Farmers' Bank Robbery in 1992.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to read from another letter which was 
received in my office this week. This letter reads:

       Dear Honorable Helen Bentley: I want to tell you what 
     happened to my sister, Judy Cobb, in 1987 in Jacksonville, 
     Florida. A man broke into her apartment at five o'clock a.m. 
     while her husband was gone, and [the intruder] was attempting 
     to rape her. He had white gloves on and a nylon stocking over 
     his face. She was awakened with him on top of her, with a 
     knife held on her throat* * *.
       [He] dragged her off the bed to get ropes he had brought in 
     and was sitting on her back with her face in a pillow tying a 
     blindfold on her, when my sister reached beside her bed on 
     the floor, got her loaded semi-automatic pistol, pointed it 
     up over the back of the head and fired.
       He died later in the day at the hospital. If the gun she'd 
     used had been banned she'd be dead today instead of him. [The 
     police believed this man] to be responsible for about twenty 
     rapes in that area. The man was nineteen years old. When he 
     died the police called my sister to inform her. They told her 
     that she had probably saved at least 200 other women. She, 
     her husband and three children now live in Maryland.
       I urge you to protect the law abiding citizens by 
     protecting our right to own every kind of gun, because of 
     crime and because of our Constitution.

  This letter is signed by Mrs. Deborah A. Miller, one of my 
constituents who lives in White Hall, MD. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would 
like to read from a letter sent to my office from Timothy H. Walker of 
Glen Burnie, MD. Mr. Walker writes:

       I am not a member of the NRA * * *. I am a Sergeant with 
     the Anne Arundel County Police Department, and let me assure 
     you that the rank and file police officers in Maryland * * * 
     and nationally do not want to see the second amendment rights 
     of the American people trampled on.
       I have been in law enforcement * * * since 1971, and have 
     never encountered any of these ``assault'' weapons on the 
     street, nor even responded to a scene where one was used.
       I have, however, seen thousands of very dangerous criminals 
     released by the Courts or by the Parole Board back onto the 
     streets * * *. Please vote against this [bill].

  Mr. Speaker, I have prepared this statement to announce from the well 
of the House that I would vote against the assault weapon ban later. 
However, there was no time left in the debate so I decided to give this 
under the special orders tonight. The weapons that this bill would ban 
are used in less than one percent of the violent crimes across this 
country. According to the Bureau for Justice Statistics, more Americans 
died last year from assaults with fists than from assaults with assault 
weapons.
  This bill does nothing about crime. Criminals still will have access 
to the full range of firepower that they desire, but we will be putting 
another shackle on the rights of the law abiding citizens of this 
country who own guns to protect themselves from the criminals that this 
Congress, and that the States, do not have the will to put and keep in 
prison.
  I decided not to join in the hypocrisy of the majority party in this 
Chamber today. I was not interested in voting with the majority in 
order to be able to go home and say to their constituents, ``We have 
done something about crime,'' when in reality we will be doing nothing.
  Where are the bills to keep criminals who use firearms in the 
commission of a crime in jail for 30 years, or 40 years, or for life?
  Mr. Speaker, this bill is also not about the NRA. When the NRA tried 
to bully me to vote against the Brady bill earlier this year, I told 
then they were wrong, and I supported Brady.
  I haven't accepted money or support from the NRA since at least 1988, 
so that when I cast a vote on gun issues my constituents know it is 
their interests I am representing, and not that of any interest group.
  The legislation that was presented to the House today is poorly 
drafted. The letters I read a few minutes ago asking me to vote against 
this bill, from Mrs. Barbara Aldrich, who was a victim of a shooting by 
an assault weapon, from Mrs. Deborah Miller, whose sister saved her own 
life with an assault pistol, and from Anne Arundel County Police 
Sergeant Timothy Walker, are indicative of the deluge of mail, 
telephone calls, and faxes that I have received for days.
  But these three communications are the most compelling. During my 10 
years in the Congress I have fought to tighten our criminal justice 
system to get tough on criminals. It is time that we spent more time 
worrying about criminals, and less time placing further restrictions on 
the law abiding men and women of America.

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