[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 25, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2582-S2583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor of the Senate to speak 
of the tragedy which occurred in Jonesboro, AR, yesterday. News reports 
tell us that two boys, aged 11 and 13, dressed in camouflage, opened 
fire on the students and teachers of the West Side Middle School. Four 
children were killed, and a teacher who tried to shield other children 
also lost her life.
  This tragedy did not occur in my home State of Illinois, but, sadly, 
it could have. Gun violence on children has become so common in America 
that kids killed in drive-by shootings are no longer lead stories on 
the national news. We are jarred into the harsh reality of modern 
American violence only when there is something unusual about the gun 
violence on children: the number of victims, the setting, or the 
perpetrators.
  In Jonesboro, AR, five victims at a peaceful school, dead at the 
hands of other children with guns, have caught the national attention 
for at least a moment. News stories headline the tragedy. This 
evening's news begins with long features about what this means. Today, 
from Africa, President Clinton calls on Attorney General Reno to 
investigate. Parents across America pause for a heartbeat to wonder, 
``Can it happen to my child? Can it happen at my child's school?''
  Sadly it can and it does.
  I hope that America is not so careless or so inattentive not to take 
a moment and reflect on what is happening with these terrible crimes. 
Sadly, this is not the first or only instance when this has occurred. 
On December 1 of last year, a young boy opened fire on a student prayer 
circle in the hallway in Heath High School in West Paducah, KY. Three 
students were killed, five others wounded. A 14-year-old student, 
described as small and emotionally immature, was arrested.
  Two months earlier, a 16-year-old outcast in Pearl, MI, was accused 
of killing his mother, then going to school and shooting nine students. 
Two of them died, including the boy's ex-girlfriend. Authorities later 
accused six friends of conspiracy, saying the suspects were part of a 
group that dabbled in satanism.
  Closer to here, a sniper who holed up in the woods wounded two 
students December 15 outside a school in the southwestern Arkansas town 
of Stamps. The two, both wounded in the hip, were hospitalized 
overnight. A 14-year-old boy was arrested in the manhunt.
  And now the news reports to us what was confiscated as being in their 
possession. Mr. President, listen to what was confiscated in the 
possession of these two boys, 11 and 13, who opened gunfire at this 
Jonesboro school: three rifles, three revolvers, two semiautomatic 
pistols, two derringers, and 3,000 rounds of ammunition.
  It is interesting when foreign visitors come to the United States and 
reflect

[[Page S2583]]

on the great American culture and on our values, how many of them that 
I have entertained in Illinois or in Washington comment about the love 
affair America has with guns. They are puzzled--what is it about this 
great Nation that would allow so many people to own so many guns and so 
many to be used recklessly, causing such violent crime and death on a 
daily basis?
  There are some things that are being done about it on a State basis 
that we should reflect on at this moment. Some States have decided that 
adults in possession of firearms have a responsibility to possess those 
firearms in a way that is safe and that protects members of their 
family as well as others from coming into contact with the firearms.
  I recall a story that came about at a recent family reunion, because 
in my family in Illinois there are many gunowners. One of them was 
talking about the fact that one of my relatives, he was a father of a 
young boy, but he had his guns safely locked away, that that little boy 
could never get to those guns. And another older man in the family 
said, ``Yes, I know, that's how I used to do it. I'd lock them away and 
my son could never find them.'' But his son was sitting there and he 
said, ``Dad, I got into those guns all kinds of times.'' Guns and 
Christmas presents are going to be discovered by kids. And if they can 
be discovered, tragedy can happen.
  So a number of States have decided to do something about it. They 
have assigned responsibility to the adults involved and said that they 
must be careful. If you want to own a handgun, a pistol, a rifle, a 
shotgun, you must own it responsibly so that gun does not become a 
weapon of violence and death and some innocent victim result.
  Listen to what is happening in America with gun crimes:
  The rate of firearm-related deaths among American children is 15 
times greater than that in 25 other industrialized countries combined.
  In a 1-year period, 86 percent of all gun-related deaths in the 
industrialized world occurred in the United States of America.
  Every day in my home State of Illinois, a child is killed by gun 
violence.
  At least one child in Illinois every month is unintentionally killed 
as a result of a gun accident.
  In 1993, the Department of Justice issued a report that concluded 
street gang violence in Chicago is becoming increasingly lethal, 
primarily because of escalating gang firepower.
  We took a survey for 1 month in the State of Illinois of gun crimes 
involving children. In 1 month in 1996 in a Chicago suburb, 15-year-old 
Ronald Walker was shot in the head as he left a grocery store.
  That same month, police had to rush two 7-year-old boys, Donnell Ross 
and Kenyon Pope, to Cook County Hospital when they wounded each other 
while playing with a .38 pistol found in their apartment. One of the 
boys was shot in the chest.
  Earlier in the same week that Donnell and Kenyon were shot, an 18-
year-old boy handed a 9-year-old boy a loaded gun and told him the 
safety was on. It wasn't. That 9-year-old pulled the trigger. He shot 
15-year-old Theunco Bell in the throat.
  A day before that incident, a 10- and 12-year-old were playing with a 
gun. It went off and killed the 10-year-old whose name was Michael 
Fuller.
  As former staff physician at Cook County Hospital said:

       Whether intentional or unintentional . . . children have 
     access to guns. Children are naturally curious, and a gun can 
     be a very sexy toy for them.

  So what can we do? Can we watch in horror as the stories come to us 
from Chicago, from Jonesboro, from Kentucky, from Mississippi? Can we 
lament the horror that has been visited on these children, their 
families, their teachers and the whole community? Can we say that this 
is just part of the price of doing business in America today, or do we 
act? Do we decide as a nation that it is time for us to come to grips 
with this challenge, to accept the reality that people, if they are to 
own guns, must own them responsibly?
  Senator Kohl of Wisconsin has trigger-lock legislation, which I 
support, which would reduce the likelihood of gun violence among 
children and, as I mentioned, many States have passed legislation 
imposing responsibilities on gun owners so that they not let these guns 
go into the hands of children.
  Are these laws in the States effective? Well, as a matter of fact, a 
study published in October in the Journal of the American Medical 
Association makes clear that children's lives have been saved when 
States have required gun owners to make guns inaccessible to children. 
The study found that accidental shooting deaths were reduced by 23 
percent in States that passed child access prevention gun laws.
  Mr. President, I will be preparing legislation to federalize child 
access prevention gun laws. There is no reason why every child in 
America shouldn't be protected at least in some small way by assuming 
that every owner of a gun has to own it responsibly, keep it in a safe 
manner, keep it in a way where it cannot be accessed by children.
  I know this won't put an end to gun violence. There is just too much 
of it going on in America. But, in fact, it may slow down the carnage 
and it may reduce the horror of the stories that we heard just this 
evening and last night from Jonesboro, AR. As we reflect on these four 
children and their teacher and this terrible tragedy, keep in mind that 
gun violence every day claims the lives of children and adults alike 
across America, black and white and Hispanic. It is a scourge, a 
scourge on those who live not only in big cities but in small towns.

  I hope that my colleagues on a bipartisan basis will join me in this 
effort to reduce the incidence of gun violence. I also hope that this 
tragedy in Jonesboro, AR, will inspire us to do it and do it quickly. I 
yield back the remainder of my time.
  Mr. KENNEDY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.

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