[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 162 (Thursday, October 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15342-S15343]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN:
  S. 1339. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to restrict 
the mail-order sale of body armor; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


                the james guelff body armor act of 1995

 Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I introduce the James Guelff 
Body Armor Act which would ban the mail order sale of bullet-proof 
vests to all individuals except law enforcement or public safety 
officers including paramedics. This legislation would require that the 
sale, transfer, and receipt of bullet-proof vests to anyone other than 
a law enforcement or public safety officers be conducted in person. 
This Act will make it more difficult for criminals to obtain this body 
armor which hinders law enforcement's ability to disarm and capture 
them.

  For those who may not have heard the story of Officer James Guelff, I 
would like to provide just a few details about this tragic story.
  On November 13, 1994, Officer James Guelff, a 10-year veteran of the 
San Francisco Police Department, was shot to death in a fire-fight by a 
heavily 

[[Page S 15343]]
armed gunman wearing a bullet-proof vest on a major street corner in 
the middle of San Francisco.
  Captain Richard Cairns was the commanding officer on the scene. 
Earlier this year, Captain Cairns participated in a roundtable 
discussion with me about the violence of assault weapons.
  This is how Captain Cairns described the scene:

       (The assailant) was firing as fast as you could pull the 
     trigger. He had semi-automatic assault weapons. He had an AK 
     223 rifle, with 30 round clips. He had a Steyr AUG which is a 
     sophisticated weapon, that he didn't get to. The officers 
     managed to keep him away from that. He had an uzi that 
     jammed, and he had two other semi-automatic pistols, and he 
     had thousands of rounds of ammunition that were in magazines. 
     And they were all in 30-round magazines already. He didn't 
     have to stop and load magazines. We ended up having 104 
     officers at the scene and he probably had more ammunition 
     than all 104 officers put together. And our officers did run 
     out of ammunition and they got more ammunition from other 
     responding units to try and keep him down. He was finally 
     killed by the SWAT teams that got there, who got above him . 
     . . 

  Captain Cairns continued:

       He had a bullet proof vest, he had a Kevlar Helmet on and 
     he was hit by our officers twice in the helmet and six times 
     in the vest. He was finally killed by a shot that came 
     through his shoulder and into his chest and killed him. 
     Officer Guelff was hit several times and then killed with a 
     bullet through the left eye out of the assault rifle. Officer 
     Guelff fired off six of his rounds and when he went to re-
     load--the suspect fired on him and killed him.

  That story, simply put, is the reason this legislation is being put 
forward today.
  California is not the only State to experience assailants--including 
heavily-armed gang members--who are wearing bullet proof vests and 
other body armor.
  In Colorado, a man entered a grocery store where his wife worked, 
killed her, the store's manager, shot a bystander and then fatally shot 
a sheriff's sergeant before being physically tackled from behind and 
brought to the ground. Gunfire from law enforcement was to no avail 
because of his body armor.
  In Long Island, NY, an armed high school student after being pushed 
out of his girlfriend's house by her father, shot 12 rounds into the 
house before a sheriff's investigator shot the young man in the 
shoulder, just avoiding his bullet-proof vest, killing him. The sheriff 
who shot the gunman commented after the incident that the bullet-proof 
vest the young man was wearing was `` * * * better than anything we've 
got now, other than what's in the SWAT locker.''
  How are law enforcement officers to protect the public when the 
criminals have better body armor than do the police?
  States and localities have already begun the effort to control the 
sale of body armor. The State of Michigan, for instance, has a law 
which increases the sentence of a criminal who wears body armor during 
the commission of a crime. And, in Baltimore, MD, the city council 
reacted quickly and severely to a billboard advertising the sale of 
bullet-proof vests as ``Life Insurance for the 90's'' with a 1-800 
number printed at the bottom by introducing a city ordinance which bans 
the sale of bullet-proof vests to anyone unless they have the 
permission of the police commissioner.
  Not only have States and localities begun to control the sale of body 
armor, at least three Nation-wide stores have already pulled bullet-
proof vests from their shelves. Those stores that responded to the 
requests of law enforcement officials to cease the sale of body armor 
are The Sharper Image, Wall-mart and Sam's Club.
  There were over 200 rounds of ammunition fired by the gunman that 
killed Officer James Guelff before other police officers were able to 
injure the assailant. I cannot say that Officer Guelff would still be 
alive if this criminal had not been wearing a bullet-proof vest. I 
imagine, however, that law enforcement would have more easily shot and 
disabled this gunman if he had not been protected by body armor. I 
attended Officer Guelff's funeral. Maybe, if these bullet-proof vests 
were not so accessible, Officer Guelff would be entering his 15th year 
of service.
  At this time, I wish to acknowledge the leadership of Representatives 
Stupak and Pelosi who have introduced similar legislation, H.R. 2192, 
in the House of Representatives. I also ask that following my remarks, 
my legislation be printed in the Record .
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``James Guelff Body Armor Act 
     of 1995''.

     SEC. 2. UNLAWFUL MAIL-ORDER SALE OF BODY ARMOR.

       Title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
     end the following new chapter:

                       ``Chapter 44A--Body Armor

``Sec.
``941. Unlawful act.

     ``S. 941. Unlawful acts

       ``(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, 
     it shall be unlawful for a person to sell or deliver body 
     armor unless the transferee meets in person with the 
     transferor to accomplish the sale, delivery, and receipt of 
     the matter.
       ``(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to body armor used by 
     law enforcement officers.
       ``(c) As used in this section--
       ``(1) the term `body armor' means any product sold or 
     offered for sale as personal protective body covering whether 
     the product is to be worn alone or is sold as a complement to 
     other products or garments; and
       ``(2) the term `law enforcement officer' means any officer, 
     agent, or employee of the United States, a State, or a 
     political subdivision of a State, authorized by law or by a 
     government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention, 
     detection, investigation, or prosecution of any violation of 
     criminal law.
       ``(d) Whoever knowingly violates this section shall be 
     fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, 
     or both.''.
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