[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 27 (Wednesday, March 5, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H743]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York [Mr. Engel] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce the introduction of 
legislation by Representatives Nita Lowey, Carolyn McCarthy, and myself 
which would prevent the purchase or possession of a firearm by a 
nonpermanent resident alien. Unfortunately, this legislation comes too 
late to prevent the tragedy which occurred at the Empire State Building 
last month, when a man who had been in the United States for just 3 
weeks shot seven tourists, killing one, and then killed himself. Such a 
violent crime under any circumstances is shocking but the fact that the 
gunman had been in this country for such a short time and had 
established residence at a Florida hotel was unbelievable. My 
colleagues and I have introduced this legislation in the hopes that we 
can prevent future crimes committed by individuals who are, 
essentially, tourists.
  Current Federal law requires that legal aliens live in a State for a 
least 90 days before purchasing a firearm. I applaud the President's 
recent directive which strengthens the law by mandating that legal 
aliens must produce a photo ID and documentation to prove they have 
been in country for at least 3 months before purchasing a weapon. 
However, I fail to understand why a nonpermanent resident alien should 
be allowed to own a gun under any circumstances.
  The Lowey-Engel-McCarthy legislation is very simple. If you are not a 
permanent resident of our Nation you quite simply should not be allowed 
to buy a gun. We must have strong comprehensive Federal legislation 
which prevents tourists from visiting our country to hunt down our 
citizens. The Empire State Building gunman was able to slip through the 
cracks of a system which does not adequately address the problem of 
violent criminal aliens. It now falls to us to ensure that our citizens 
are protected from violent predators who seek to abuse the laws of our 
Nation in order to harm law-abiding citizens.

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