[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 37 (Friday, March 27, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2713-S2714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CHILDREN AND GUNS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the tragedy which occurred in Jonesboro, 
AR, this week raises many questions. Two come to mind immediately. Why 
do children kill? I do not know the answer to that. I have heard a 
variety of opinions from people who suggest that violent television and 
violent movies are somehow contributing to this. There are others who 
say, if the children would just pray in school, it would make all the 
difference in the world. Some look to the families more than the 
schools; others think the schools have a greater role to play.

  We will debate at length, and I am sure many of us will come up with 
a lot of different explanations as to why children reach that point in 
their young lives when they would take the life of another.
  But the tragedy in Jonesboro raised another question which I think we 
can address because it is a simpler question. It is a question of, how 
do children at that young age come to possess lethal weapons? Think 
about it. An 11-year-old and a 13-year-old with 10 firearms--rifles, 
shotguns, and handguns, and 3,000 rounds of ammunition--went into the 
woods behind that middle school, tricked the students out with a fake 
fire alarm, opened fire and shot off somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 
rounds before they were finally stopped.

[[Page S2714]]

  Four little girls were killed. A teacher, who deserves all of our 
recognition and praise for her courage, stood in the line of fire to 
protect one of those little girls and lost her own life. This teacher, 
the mother of a 2-year-old, lost her life defending her students.
  How do kids come into possession of firearms? They do not buy them. 
In most States it is unthinkable that they would even approach a 
counter and try. And yet, day after day in America there is further 
evidence of children, younger and younger, being found with firearms.
  The day after the Jonesboro, AR, tragedy, in Cleveland, OH, it is 
reported a 4-year-old showed up at a day-care center with a loaded 
handgun.
  In my home State of Illinois, in Marion, IL, a high school student 
showed up at school the next day with a handgun.
  In Daly City, CA, the day after Jonesboro, a 13-year-old was arrested 
for attempting to murder his principal with a semiautomatic pistol.
  There is something we can do about this. I am not sure that it will 
solve the problem completely, but it can help. Fifteen States have 
already recognized this problem and done something about it. These 
States have passed a childhood access prevention law which is known as 
a CAP law, saying to those who purchase and own handguns, it is not 
enough for you to follow the law in purchasing them and to use those 
guns safely; you have another responsibility. If you are going to own a 
firearm in your home, you have to keep it safely and securely so that 
children do not have access to it.
  Should we consider this as a national model? I think the obvious 
answer is yes, because the tragedy in Jonesboro, which we will not 
forget for a long, long time, unfortunately, is not unique. Every day 
in America 14 young people, ages 19 and under, are killed in gun 
homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings, with many more 
wounded.
  The scourge of gun violence frequently attacks the most helpless 
members of our society--our children.
  Here is what I am proposing. I am proposing Federal legislation that 
will apply to every State, not just 15, but every State. And this is 
what it says. If you want to own a handgun, a rifle or shotgun, and it 
is legal to do so, you can; but if you own it, you have a 
responsibility to make certain that it is kept securely and safely. You 
may buy a trigger lock. Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin has a proposal 
that all handguns be sold with trigger locks. I support it. I am a 
cosponsor of it. It makes sense.

  How many times do you read in the paper, how many times do you listen 
on TV, to kids with their playmates and the gun goes off and someone is 
killed? A trigger lock, as Senator Kohl has proposed, is sensible. It 
should be required. It shouldn't even be debated. I think that 
legislation will go a long way toward reducing gun violence. Beyond 
that, we say to every gunowner, if it is not a trigger lock, put that 
gun in a place where that child cannot get to it.
  As to these two kids, 11 and 13 years old, God only knows what was 
going through their minds when they were setting out to get the guns to 
go out and start shooting. They first stopped at the parents of one of 
the kids and wanted to pick up that parents' guns. That parent had the 
guns under lock and key in a vault and they couldn't get to them. So 
they thought about it and said, wait a minute, my grandfather has some, 
too; let's go over to his place. And that is where they came up with 
the weapons and the ammunition.
  In one instance, one parent had taken the necessary steps to take the 
guns and keep them away from kids. Sadly, it appears--and I just say 
``appears'' because I do not know all the details--in another case that 
did not happen.
  Now a lot of people will say to me, ``There they go again, those 
liberals on Capitol Hill. Another bill, another law to infringe on 
second amendment rights.'' Oh, I know I will hear from the folks from 
the National Rifle Association, all the other gun lobbies, screaming 
bloody murder about the second amendment.
  Look at 15 States that have already passed these laws, these child 
access prevention laws, to protect kids, to say to gunowners ``you have 
a special responsibility.'' You will not find a list of the most 
liberal States in America. The first State to pass this legislation in 
1989 was Florida. The list goes on: Connecticut, Iowa, California, 
Nevada, New Jersey, Virginia, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, 
North Carolina, Delaware, Rhode Island, and in 1995, the last State to 
pass a child access prevention law, certainly no bleeding heart State 
by any political definition, was Texas--Texas. The Texas law says it is 
``unlawful to store, transport or abandon an unsecured firearm in a 
place where children are likely to be and can obtain access to it,'' 
and it is a criminal misdemeanor if you do it.
  I am going to ask my colleagues in the Senate to not only return home 
this weekend, as I am sure we all will, and witness those sad events on 
television, the funerals in Jonesboro, the tributes, the teacher who 
gave a life, but to resolve to do something about it. That is what we 
are here for. That is why we were elected to the Senate and the House, 
not just to be sad as we should be, but to do something about it. Not 
to infringe on people's right to own firearms, but to say ``Own them 
responsibly, put them securely in your homes, keep them safely, keep 
them away from children.''
  Mark my words, my friends, and you know this from human experience, 
no matter where you hide a gun or a Christmas gift, a kid is going to 
find it. You can stick it in a drawer and say, ``Oh, they will never 
look behind my socks, that is the last place in the world,'' or up on 
some shelf in the closet and believe your child can't reach that, but 
you know better. You know when you are gone and the house is empty 
those kids are scurrying around and looking--I plead guilty and did the 
same thing as a kid, and it helps now with tragic consequences when a 
gun is involved. So I hope we can address this issue.

  First, Senator Kohl's legislation for these child safety devices, 
these trigger locks, will help. But then take the extra step, follow 
these 15 States and say as we address the overriding question, the big 
question, why do children kill, we will come to a conclusion that there 
are troubled children in America and we should never ignore that fact.
  But please, let this Senate and this House, before we leave this 
year, do something to make certain that those troubled children cannot 
get their hands on a firearm. I think every parent in America, 
particularly those of children of school age, paused at least for a 
moment after they heard about Jonesboro and thought, could it happen to 
my son, my daughter, my grandson, my granddaughter? The sad reality of 
life in modern America, is, yes, it could. There are so many weapons 
being kept so carelessly that it could happen to any of us or any of 
our children in virtually any school in America.
  Mr. President, I know that the Senate has a very busy schedule and 
limited opportunity this year, but I hope as part of our work we will 
let the lesson of the tragedy of Jonesboro result in legislation that 
will be designed to protect children and schoolteachers and innocent 
people in the future.
  I yield back the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania is recognized.

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