[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 67 (Friday, May 22, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S5423]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        OREGON SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, I would like to take a brief moment 
to express my condolences to the families of the students killed and 
wounded during the tragic shooting yesterday at the Thurston High 
School in Springfield, Oregon.
  The thoughts and prayers of all Americans today are with the families 
of Springfield. It is yet another community where lives have been 
shattered forever by children with easy access to firearms.
  This attack was the fourth killing in a high school in the last six 
months by a youth under the age of 16. Mr. President, this killing must 
stop.
  Last year, approximately 50% of all serious violent crimes were 
committed by teens against teens. Our nation's overall firearm-related 
death rate among children was nearly 12 times higher than among 
children in the other 25 industrialized countries combined.
  This is an outrage. Mr. President, these horrific crimes amply 
demonstrate that we have a responsibility to oppose the proliferation 
of violence and to stand fast against any effort to make firearms more 
freely available. Does anyone still believe that it is possible to 
raise children in a society where guns are so easily obtained? We 
cannot continue to protect our children in such a world.
  We must come together as a society and recommit ourselves to keeping 
firearms out of the hands of children and to guaranteeing that only 
those people who know how to use guns responsibly have access to them. 
We must expand programs to train gunowners in the proper use and 
storage of their weapons.
  Responsible gunowners have nothing to fear from reasonable gun laws. 
We must have reasonable gun laws that will prevent tragedies like the 
one that happened yesterday in that small community in Oregon from ever 
happening again. The second amendment was never intended as a 
subterfuge for domestic carnage. Our living constitution can respond to 
changes in our society which jeopardize our freedom from fear and 
random violence by children. I think it is appropriate for us to have 
that debate, given the importance to our children, to their safety, to 
our liberty and freedom and safety in our communities.

                          ____________________