[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 19 (Tuesday, January 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1800-S1801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 HOMICIDES BY GUNSHOT IN NEW YORK CITY

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise to announce to the Senate that 
during the past week, 14 people were killed with firearms in New York 
City, bringing this year's total to 58.
  A recent national study released by the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention indicated that homicide is the second leading cause of 
death among teenagers aged 15 to 19. If current nationwide trends 
continue, it is estimated that annual deaths from gunshot wounds will 
surpass annual deaths from automobile accidents by 2003. In New York 
State, as in the District of Columbia and five other States, this has 
already occurred. In 1992, there were 2,345 gunshot-related deaths in 
New York State, compared with 1,959 motor vehicle-related deaths.
  By the middle of the century, we recognized that traffic accidents 
constituted perhaps the greatest of the Nation's public health 
problems. So we did something about it. We passed the Motor Vehicle 
Safety Act in 1966 and increased the use of seatbelts, padded 
dashboards, and, more recently, air-bags. As a result, traffic death 
and injury was reduced by 30 percent, even as the number of miles 
driven by Americans increased dramatically. Estimates suggest that we 
prevented as many as 250,000 deaths.
  We should apply our experience in reducing traffic fatalities to 
reducing the 
[[Page S1801]] death rate by gunshot. There are certainly ways we could 
achieve this: by establishing stricter requirements for gun ownership, 
by restricting access to the guns used most often to commit crimes, by 
making guns themselves safer, and by teaching people to use them 
safely. However, I propose that we can best reduce the incidence of 
firearm-related deaths not by restricting the supply of guns, but by 
restricting the supply of ammunition, particularly those rounds used 
disproportionately in violent crime. Even if we were able to resolve 
the intense conflicts surrounding the gun control debate, we would 
still have enough guns on the street to last us more than a century. 
Our current supply of ammunition, on the other hand, might well last 
only 3 or 4 years.
  We must heed the lessons of the past. Clearly we cannot change the 
behavior of criminals overnight, as we could not change the behavior of 
drivers. But there are other ways to control the escalating death 
rates. I believe that ammunition control is the best way, and I hope my 
colleagues will agree.


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