[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 42 (Thursday, April 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        KIDS AND GUNS DO NOT MIX

  (Mr. BLAGOJEVICH asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLAGOJEVICH. Mr. Speaker, permit me to gently change the subject. 
I would like to talk about kids and guns today.
  Mr. Speaker, according to a recent study of gun deaths by the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention, children in the United States are 
12 times more likely to die because of a firearm than children in other 
industrial countries. The United States had the highest gun-related 
child homicides and the highest rate of child suicides of 26 industrial 
nations in the study. There is not even a close second.
  Between 1965, Mr. Speaker, and 1995, the percentage of murders 
committed by people under 21 in my hometown of Chicago went from 10 
percent to nearly 40 percent. Over the same 30-year time span, the 
number of murders committed nationally by those under 21 increased 
fivefold. Today, 18- and 19-year-olds account for the largest 
percentage of violent crime arrests in the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, these sobering facts can lead to only one conclusion: 
Kids and guns do not mix. I urge my colleagues to support my bill that 
would ban ownership of handguns for anyone under 21.

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