[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 110 (Wednesday, July 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8643-S8645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 282 RELATIVE TO THE DAY OF NATIONAL CONCERN ABOUT 
                     YOUNG PEOPLE AND GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. BRADLEY (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Wellstone, Mr. Frist, Mr. 
Levin, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Akaka, Mr. DeWine, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Thurmond, Mr. 
Moynihan, Mr. Biden, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Glenn, Mr. Reid, Mr. Simon, Mr. 
Kohl, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Chafee, Mr. Bennett, Mr. McCain, 
Mr. Coats, Mr. D'Amato, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Kassebaum, Mr. Grassley, Mr. 
Inouye, Mr. Burns, Mr. Graham, Mr. Nickles, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Roth, Mr. 
Dorgan, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Pryor, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. 
Faircloth, Mr. Bumpers, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Thompson, 
Mr. Kerry, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Johnston, Mr. Gorton, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Craig, 
Mr. Robb, Mr. Kempthorne, Ms. Moseley-Braun, Mr. Mack, Mr. Wyden, Mr. 
Grams, Mr. Hollings, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Daschle, Mr. Campbell, Ms. 
Mikulski, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Heflin, Mrs. Frahm, Mr. Exon, Mr. Abraham, 
Mr. Ford, Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Byrd, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. 
Hatfield, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Kerrey, Mr. Santorum, Mr. 
Nunn, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Warner, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Helms, Mr. 
Breaux, Mr. Bryan, and Mr. Pell) submitted the following resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 282

       Whereas violent crime among juveniles in American society 
     has dramatically escalated in recent years;
       Whereas between 1989 and 1994, juvenile arrest rates for 
     murder in this country skyrocketed 42 percent;
       Whereas in 1993, more than 10 children were murdered each 
     day in America;
       Whereas America's young people are this country's most 
     important resource, and Americans have a vested interest in 
     helping children survive, free from fear and violence, to 
     become healthy adults;
       Whereas America's young people can, by taking individual 
     and collective responsibility for their own decisions and 
     actions, help chart a new and less violent direction for the 
     entire country;
       Whereas American school children will be invited to 
     participate in a national observance involving millions of 
     their fellow students and will thereby be empowered to see 
     themselves as the agents of positive social change; and
       Whereas this observance will give American school children 
     the opportunity to make a solemn decision about their future 
     and control their destiny by voluntarily signing a pledge 
     promising that they will never take a gun to school, will 
     never use a gun to resolve a dispute, and will use their 
     influence to prevent friends from using guns to settle 
     disputes: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate designates October 10, 1996, as 
     the ``Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun 
     Violence''. The President is authorized and requested to 
     issue a proclamation calling upon the school children of the 
     United States to observe such day with appropriate 
     activities.

  Mr. BRADLEY. Mr. President, I rise today, along with my colleagues, 
Senator Specter and Senator Wellstone, who initially joined me to serve 
as original cosponsors, to submit a resolution designating October 10, 
1996, as a day of national concern about young people and gun violence.
  This resolution has enjoyed broad bipartisan support over the last 
several days. I have been asking other Members of the Senate if they 
would like to join as original cosponsors of this resolution. As of 
today, the date of its introduction, there are 81 additional cosponsors 
of this resolution to declare October 10 as a national day of concern 
about young people and gun violence.
  Mr. President, we are in a crisis in this country. America is losing 
a generation of young people to crime and violence. Last July, Cindy 
Villalba, a 20-year-old Rutgers University student, was slain in 
Paterson, NJ, when a bullet from a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol 
careened into her chest. The assailant, Corie Miller, was 17 years old.
  The murder was a senseless tragedy. Ms. Villalba was sitting in a car 
talking to a friend, Julissa Vargas. Miller, along with two other 
teenagers, aged 19 and 18, approached the vehicle and demanded money. 
When the two women insisted they did not have any money and began 
screaming, Miller cocked the pistol and struck Vargas in the back of 
the head. The pistol then discharged, and a bullet struck Villalba in 
the chest, killing her instantly. Villalba, a catechism teacher at St. 
John the Baptist Cathedral, had just returned from Costa Rica, where 
she was teaching English to schoolchildren as a part of a Rutgers 
University program.
  A few months after the murder of Ms. Villalba, Desmond Carberry, then 
12 years old, took a loaded gun and pointed it at his 10-year-old 
neighborhood playmate's head. He squeezed the trigger, killing Noel 
DaRoja. The children were playing unsupervised with a .22-caliber 
handgun at a third friend's house in Berkeley Township, NJ, on a day 
when school was let out early because of teacher conferences. They had

[[Page S8644]]

a dispute, and use of the gun resulted from the dispute.
  Mr. President, the common theme in the murders of Cindy Villalba and 
Noel DaRoja is that children are killing and being killed at an 
alarming rate in this country. The number of juveniles murdered in 1994 
was 47 percent greater than the number in 1980.
  Mr. President, juvenile homicides involving firearms tripled from 
1980 to 1994. Ask any police chief of any major city in this country, 
and they will tell you the problem in violence is that now the weapons 
are more powerful and they are used more frequently.
  Teenage violence is skyrocketing. In 1994, one in five murdered 
juveniles were known to be killed by a juvenile offender. Juveniles 
were responsible for 14 percent of all violent crimes cleared in 1994, 
and young people were 17 percent of all persons arrested for murder 
that same year. Among young African-American males, murder is the No. 1 
cause of death.
  Mr. President, young people in this country are understandably 
frightened. In 1993, 42 percent of students in grades 6 to 12 reported 
knowing of weapons in their school. That same year, nearly 75 percent 
of students were aware of incidents of physical attack, robbery or 
bullying. Almost one-third of the students had witnessed such attacks, 
and at least one-fourth were worried about being the victims of such 
attacks.
  Mr. President, this is not simply an urban problem. It is a national 
problem. During the 3-month period between December 1995 and February 
of this year, 31 teenagers were murdered in the largely suburban New 
Jersey counties of Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex, Somerset and Union.
  In January, 18-year-old Torrance Turner of suburban Lakewood, NJ, 
died after being shot in the face after a confrontation outside an 
apartment complex.
  In September 1994, 20-year-old George Corbett biked to a park in 
suburban Old Bridge with a .22-caliber rifle swung over his shoulder. 
Once at the park, he shot 14-year-old Christopher Shrimpton in the 
head, killing him instantly. This deadly confrontation resulted from a 
dispute between the boys after the Old Bridge police caught them trying 
to break into a car the summer before the shooting.
  Mr. President, the epidemic of violence is ensnaring our children at 
an alarming rate. I could go on and I could go on and on with story 
after heartbreaking story about kids killing kids and being killed. It 
is time to reverse this deadly trend because, if we do not, the future 
of America will perish before our eyes.
  It is time to make it unfashionable to carry a gun to school. It is 
time to make it unacceptable to resolve a dispute with a gun. It is 
time to give young people in this country a chance to stand up and 
retake their schools and their neighborhoods.
  Mr. President, the resolution that I am introducing today is designed 
to give American young people a chance to stop the carnage that is 
taking place on the streets that they often frequent. The resolution 
designates October 10, 1996, as a day of national concern about young 
people and gun violence.
  October 10 will mark a national observance, giving young people 
throughout the country the chance to sign a voluntary pledge. On this 
day young people will be asked to sign the pledge. Across this country, 
they will be asked to raise their hand in urban centers and small towns 
alike. They will be asked to raise their hand and say, ``I pledge that 
I will never bring a gun to school; that I will never use a gun to 
settle a dispute; and that I will use my influence with my friends to 
keep them from using guns to settle disputes.''
  That is the pledge.
  Mr. President, by taking individual and collective responsibility for 
their decisions and actions, American young people can help chart a 
less violent future. Through the power of their collective voices, 
young people can demonstrate that the country, through their initiative 
and resolve, has come to terms with a crisis.

  A couple of years ago there was something called Hands Across 
America, where on one day, at one time, literally millions of Americans 
joined hands to make a very important point. It is my hope that every 
local television station, that local radio stations, that local 
institutions on that day, October 10, will cover young people in 
schools, raising their hand, and take this pledge.
  Mr. President, the distribution of the national pledge will give 
local communities and residents of those communities the power to 
control their own destiny. Instead of looking to Washington to stop the 
scourge of violence, young people will take the pledge, and they 
themselves, by their action, will stop the violence.
  Mr. President, this resolution does not concern the issue of gun 
control. It does not prevent someone from becoming a police officer, 
joining a State patrol, using a gun in hunting. It is designed simply 
for one purpose, and one purpose only. That is to curb the epidemic of 
gun violence and its deadly consequences for America's young people.
  This bipartisan resolution is supported by the American Federation of 
Teachers, who frequently are the targets of some of this gun touting, 
the National Education Association, the Council of Great City Schools, 
the National League of Women Voters, Mothers Against Violence in 
America, the National Parent Teachers Association, Physicians for 
Social Responsibility, the National Association of Secondary School 
Principals, the American Association of School Administrators, the 
Presbyterian Church of the USA, United Church of Christ Office for 
Church in Society, the National School Board Association, the United 
Methodist Church and the General Board of Church and Society.
  Mr. President, young people are our most important resource. As a 
society, we have a vested interest in helping people survive, free from 
fear and violence, and survive into healthy adulthood. It is my hope, 
my sincere hope that all 84 Senators who have supported this resolution 
and cosponsored it, will share in their communities and States on this 
day of October 10, 1996, and oversee and participate with young people 
taking this pledge.
  Some people say, well, what is a little resolution, a little 
resolution designating a day? It is a focus, that is what it is. It is 
a focus. It is a focus that allows young people, wherever they are, to 
take some control over their school, to give those who want it to be a 
safer place a chance to organize around an action, a simple pledge. ``I 
pledge never to tell a lie''--we have all heard that before. It has 
some impact when it is taken seriously. ``I pledge never to take a gun 
to school, never to use a gun to resolve a dispute, and to use my 
influence to keep my friends from using a gun to resolve a dispute.'' A 
very simple idea. If adhered to, a very positive and successful idea.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, we are here today simply to ask 
students to sign a pledge declaring that they will never bring a weapon 
to school, they will not use a weapon to settle disputes, and they will 
use their influence to prevent their friends from using weapons to 
settle disputes.
  Mr. President, I am deeply disturbed that homicides and suicides are 
the leading causes of death for young people in Minnesota's largest 
county, Hennepin County. For teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19, 
77 percent of the homicides involve guns.
  I am deeply disturbed that juvenile aggravated assaults tripled in 
Minnesota in the 10 years between 1980 and 1990. Half of these crimes 
involve guns. I was horrified to find out that, of the 105 school-
associated deaths between 1992 and 1994, 75 percent were committed with 
guns, according to the National School Safety Center.
  Mr. President, I was dismayed to read in the Minneapolis Star 
Tribune, ``More children in Minnesota are going to school angry and 
armed.'' More than 3,700 students reported carrying a gun to school at 
least once during the month the survey was taken by the Department of 
Children, Families and Learning. One Minnesota official said that they 
are ``swimming upstream when it comes to growing violence among young 
people.''
  Every State in the Nation, every school district whether rural, 
suburban or urban has these kinds of stories, these kinds of 
statistics. That's why we have got to urge students to sign a pledge 
declaring that they will never bring a weapon to school, they will not 
use a weapon to settle disputes, and they will use their influence to 
prevent their friends from using weapons to settle disputes.
  Clearly, the pledge is only a small step in preventing gun violence. 
But we

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have got to start with changing children's perceptions and helping them 
avoid crime and violence. If kids are using guns, if kids are bringing 
guns to school, those are signs of much deeper crises we have got to 
work hard to address.
  One effort we have tried with great success is the Safe and Drug Free 
Schools initiative. This helps schools become safer, more disciplined 
and drug-free. Parents, teachers, and law enforcement officials tell us 
it is one of the most effective programs they have seen.
  However, the extremist Republicans in the House want to spend $99 
million less in 1997 nationwide, and $1.08 million less in Minnesota 
alone, than the President wants to spend to keep schools safe and drug 
free.
  Earlier in June, I met with Chuck Anderson. He is a violence 
intervention trainer at Black Hawk Middle School in Eagan, MN. He has 
taught since 1970. The program that he coordinates, which is funded 
under Safe and Drug Free Schools, trains both teachers and students to 
effectively resolve conflicts in the school as an alternative to 
disciplinary policy. This program Mr. Anderson directs provides 
appropriate proactive plans for students to learn means by which to 
avoid violence and fighting through peaceful intervention. Along with 
this gun pledge, we have got to support teachers like Chuck Anderson if 
we truly want to reduce violence in our schools and our society.

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