[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 28, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 HOMICIDES BY GUNSHOT IN NEW YORK CITY

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise, as has been my practice 
each week in this session of the 103d Congress, to announce to the 
Senate that during the last week, 19 people were killed in New York 
City by gunshot, bringing this year's total to 481.
  As the surge of tragic deaths by gunshot continues to grow in city 
streets throughout the country, it is time to revisit methods to curb 
this violence. While the Brady law, which was passed last year, has 
kept guns out of the hands of thousands of potential felons, it has not 
ended the plague of violence we face. That is why I have long advocated 
attacking the very agents of the killings themselves: the bullets.
  As I have said before, guns do not kill people, bullets do. I have 
introduced legislation that would ban or tax certain rounds of 
ammunition. This effort began in 1986, when President Reagan signed 
into law a bill I introduced that bans sale of armor-piercing--cop-
killer--bullets.
  Mr. President, we are dealing with a national emergency; an epidemic. 
So our efforts to address this crisis must match the severity of the 
problem. By controlling the supply of ammunition, we can quickly an 
measurably reduce the senseless homicides that have reached such grim 
proportions today.
  I would like to draw the Senate's attention to a letter by Dr. Ward 
Casscells of the University of Texas published in the June 23 New 
England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Casscells proposes restricting the 
sale of handgun ammunition to shooting clubs, police, and the Secret 
Service. He rightly focuses on the need to keep deadly bullets out of 
the hands of potential criminals. Dr. Casscells' insight deserves our 
attention. I ask that his letter be made part of the Record.
  The letter follows:

       [From the New England Journal of Medicine, June 23, 1994]

                    Should Ammunition Be Restricted?

       To the Editor: Like many Americans, I am afraid that 
     waiting periods and background checks would delay but not 
     prevent the purchase of handguns by criminals. It would be 
     difficult to confiscate all the guns: 67 million handguns are 
     owned by private citizens in the United States, and there are 
     guns in 48 percent of U.S. households.\1\ The cost of 
     repurchasing all these guns would be high. Confiscation would 
     raise constitutional issues, and in any case, guns can be 
     hidden.
       My proposal is to restrict the sale of handgun ammunition 
     to shooting clubs, police, and the Secret Service. A legal 
     case might even be made for confiscating existing handgun 
     ammunition from retail stores to prevent those inventories 
     from creating an instant black market. The costs of 
     compensating retailers would probably be offset by savings in 
     the health care of victims of shootings: the annual cost of 
     hospital services for treating firearm injuries is estimated 
     at $1 billion, with an estimated total cost to the U.S. 
     economy of $14 billion a year.\1\
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     \1\Time, December 20, 1993:21-3.
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       This proposal would not result in a hardship to the 
     millions of law-abiding citizens who keep handguns for 
     protection in their home (whether or not such a practice is a 
     good idea) and never use them. Let these citizens keep 
     whatever shells and bullets they have. Meanwhile, criminals 
     will deplete their stocks of ammunition.
       I have had a shotgun since I hunted birds as a boy with my 
     father. When I was in junior high school, my best friend was 
     murdered, and his father, the late Pete Shields, quit his job 
     and founded Handgun Control, sponsor of the recently passed 
     Brady Bill. As a homeowner and a father, I still have that 
     shotgun (hidden, with the shells hidden separately). It does 
     not give me much reassurance, and even that I would gladly 
     give up if most of the people with handguns could not obtain 
     ammunition. I am sure some ammunition would be smuggled into 
     the country before long or manufactured in basements, but my 
     hope is that there would be less of it, and in the meantime 
     we would all be a little safer.

                                         Ward Casscells, M.D.,

                                      University of Texas--Houston
     Medical School

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