[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 110 (Wednesday, August 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      WE MUST PASS THE CRIME BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Hoagland] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOAGLAND. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, it is a pleasure to be here 
this evening and have this opportunity to address the problem of crime 
in America and the status of the crime bill here in the House. As my 
colleagues know, I wish I were able to stand here and say we are going 
to pass a crime bill that is going to make America safer, and I wish I 
were able to stand here and say we responded to the voice of America, 
to all that are concerned.
  Let me say I urge all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
vote for the rule, and it is scheduled to come up, perhaps, as early as 
tomorrow, so we can get this legislation passed and so hopefully in 
future years we will not have to read headlines like this from the 
Omaha World-Herald just recently.
  This figure is truly striking, an 18-percent increase in the first 6 
months of this year over the first 6 months of the year before. The 
article goes on to describe numbers from the Omaha police department 
that show that in nearly every area crime has gone up; more robberies 
over last year, more auto thefts over last year, more homicides over 
last year, more lives touched by crime and more lives shattered by 
crime. Mr. Speaker, more than 20,000 people in America were murdered 
last year.
  Now if this were something done by a foreign army or in the context 
of international relations, we would view it as one of the highest 
possible threats to America, and we would view it as something to which 
we should respond in emergency fashion. We would declare a national 
emergency to try to do everything we could to bring an end to the 
violence, and I think clearly what we have to do is take immediate 
action to get this crime bill passed with the assault weapons ban.
  Now each of us can take out parts of the bill they are uncomfortable 
with. Lord knows there are many aspects of the bill that I am 
uncomfortable with. I think it probably authorizes too much money in 
many areas, money that in a sense is a false promise because it will 
never be appropriated. But when it comes right down to it, Mr. Speaker, 
we need to pass the bill because passing the bill is going to save 
lives.
  And when we pass the bill, shortly thereafter we will begin to put a 
hundred thousand more police officers on the street. We will have three 
strikes and you're out as part of Federal law that will help put away 
for long, long periods of time the most dangerous offenders in America.
  Remember fewer than 15 percent of all criminals commit over 70 
percent of the violent crimes in America. Let us identify those 15 
percent and put them away for a long, long time.
  This bill also deals with domestic violence by ensuring that 
offenders are prosecuted and the victims get help, and of course the 
bill bans 19 kinds of semiautomatic assault weapons. I am hearing from 
police officers throughout Omaha that we need to get assault weapons 
off the street. The fifth most commonly seized firearm in Omaha today 
is an assault weapon. Some police officers told me that the bullets of 
many assault weapons penetrate their bullet-proof vests. Really what is 
the use? What is the public purpose served by allowing these things to 
be legal?
  Mr. Speaker, I say, ``Let's take advantage of this legislation. Ban 
those 19 assault weapons and their progeny and get on with saving 
lives.''
  When I think about the importance of passing this bill, I think about 
some of the people talked to in Omaha by the Omaha World-Herald in a 
recent story that was done on crime:
  People like Cornell Williams who is confined to a wheelchair because 
of a wound he received in a drive-by shooting 4 years ago. Cornell was 
training for a job as an electrician when a bullet paralyzed him from 
the waist down.
  I think about people like Mary Beth Harrold who is so afraid that she 
won't drive to the mall to go shopping by herself anymore. Reports of 
assaults and robberies are always in the back of her mind.
  I think about a young man in Omaha who at 15 has to watch his back 
when he is walking in his neighborhood because a gang member might not 
like the kinds of clothes that he is wearing or the people he is 
associating with.
  So, these people know that tough action is necessary. We know that 
tough action is necessary, and the value is evident in a recent drug 
seizure in Omaha where 14 law enforcement agencies from four States 
worked through the task force, the metropolitan drug task force, to 
seize 70 guns, having served 19 search warrants, and having confiscated 
thousands of dollars in cash and 60 pounds of manufactured cocaine or 
methamphetamines.
  Now the metropolitan drug task force gets a great deal of its funding 
through the Byrne grant program which is included in this crime bill. 
Over the last few years in eastern Nebraska this task force has made 
more than 2,000 arrests, seized 600 guns, and put drug dealers and gang 
members behind bars.
  My colleagues, we need this legislation. Let us pass it quickly.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Diaz-Balart] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  [Mr. DIAZ-BALART addressed the House. His remarks will appear 
hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.]

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