[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 36 (Thursday, March 26, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2614-S2615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            GUN LEGISLATION

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this morning I heard a brief statement by 
the Senator from Arkansas, Senator Bumpers, about the tragedy that 
occurred in his State in the last 48 hours. This tragedy happened 
apparently when a couple of young children, 11- and 13-year-old 
children, allegedly stole some weapons and then, on a schoolyard in 
that small town in Arkansas, murdered five other children and a 
teacher.
  I watched the reports on television and listened on the radio. My 
children asked me about what they were hearing on those television news 
reports this morning. It is hard for a parent to explain to a child a 
news story about children allegedly murdering other children, at a 
schoolyard. It is hard for me to understand what all of that means or 
what causes that kind of behavior. I don't think any of us know. We do 
know that in this country there always needs to be an understanding by 
everyone--parents, children, and all Americans--that guns and schools 
don't mix, and that there never ought to be a circumstance in which a 
child brings a gun to school.
  The reason I mention this on the floor today is I want to put this in 
the context of a piece of legislation that is now law and another piece 
of legislation that I want to make law. The piece that is now law is a 
bill I offered a couple of years ago here in the Senate saying that 
there ought to be a uniform zero tolerance policy in every school 
district in this country. If a child brings a gun to school, that child 
will be expelled for a year. No questions, no excuses.
  People need to understand that you cannot bring a gun to school. But 
if you do, you are going to be expelled for a year. I am pleased to say 
that the Gun Free Schools Act is now law, and every school district in 
the country is required to have that policy in place in exchange for 
access to Federal funds.
  To those who opposed it--and there were some--I asked the question: 
``Why would you oppose that? Do you believe that in any school district 
in this country it is appropriate for a child to bring a gun to 
school?'' They didn't think so. ``Do you disagree with the penalty? 
Should we as a country say to every child and to every adult that they 
cannot bring a gun to a school?'' That led me to the second question. 
And that is the piece of legislation that I would like to get passed 
here in this Congress.
  A few years ago, a 16-year-old young man walked down the corridors of 
a school in New York. He had on a leather jacket, and there was a bulge 
on the side of his leather jacket. The security guard at the school 
stopped this young boy because he was suspicious of the bulge, and, in 
the waistband of that boy's pants underneath that leather jacket, he 
found a loaded pistol. The kid was kicked out of school for a year, and 
he was also charged with criminal weapons violations.
  A New York court stood common sense on its head when it ruled in this 
young boy's case that the gun could not be allowed as evidence in his 
dismissal action from school because the security guard did not have 
reasonable suspicion to search him.
  Fortunately, that court decision was overturned later by another 
court. But can you imagine a court saying that? A young boy with a 
loaded pistol at age 16 walks down the corridor of a school. Because a 
security guard noticed the bulge in the boy's jacket and takes the 
loaded pistol from him, the court said the kid's rights were violated. 
You can't go to the airport and get on an airplane without going 
through a metal detector. If you have a gun, they will take it away 
from you immediately and you are not going anywhere. Why should you be 
able to take a gun into a school?

  As I said, that decision was overturned by a higher court.
  But the legislation I have introduced, the Safer Schools Act, will 
make it clear that a gun seized from a student in school can and will 
be used as evidence in a school disciplinary hearing. No court ever 
ought to make the same mistake as the earlier court by applying the 
exclusionary rule even to an internal school hearing. A student doesn't 
have any right under any condition to carry a loaded gun in the 
hallways in our schools in this country. Under no condition should that 
be acceptable. That is why I will offer this

[[Page S2615]]

piece of legislation as an amendment at an appropriate time. I hope the 
Congress will agree at that time that we ought not ever again have a 
court decision that says a student caught with a gun in school cannot 
be expelled because the student's rights were abridged when the 
security guard noticed the bulge in his jacket and searched the 
student. What an outrageous piece of judgment by a judge who apparently 
didn't have any judgment.
  Ending where I began, my heart breaks for those families, those 
children, that teacher, and for all of those who suffered that tragedy 
in Arkansas. I don't know what the cause of all of this is. It is the 
third such tragedy on schoolyards or in our schools in not too long a 
period of time. I hope as a country we can think through and find ways 
to prevent other tragedies from occurring.
  But I do know this. As a country we ought to have one voice saying in 
every circumstance all around this country that it is never appropriate 
to bring a gun to school; that doing so imposes on you a certain 
sanction in every school district in this country, and that is a 1-year 
expulsion. That is now law. And I hope the next law will come from the 
amendment I will offer in this Senate at a later time saying, if you 
bring a gun to school, the school authorities have a right not only to 
search you and withdraw the gun but also to expel you without being 
afraid they have somehow abridged some one's rights. No student has a 
right to bring a gun to school.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and make a point of order that a 
quorum is not present.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________