[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 106 (Friday, July 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S9600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 264--DESIGNATING OCTOBER 8, 1998 AS THE DAY OF 
          NATIONAL CONCERN ABOUT YOUNG PEOPLE AND GUN VIOLENCE

  Mrs. MURRAY (for herself and Mr. Kempthorne) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 264

       Whereas every day in America, 15 children under the age of 
     19 are killed with guns;
       Whereas in 1994, approximately 70 percent of murder victims 
     aged 15 to 17 were killed with a handgun;
       Whereas in 1995, nearly 8 percent of high school students 
     reported having carried a gun in the past 30 days;
       Whereas young people are our Nation's most important 
     resource, and we, as a society, have a vested interest in 
     helping children grow from a childhood free from fear and 
     violence into healthy adulthood;
       Whereas young people can, by taking responsibility for 
     their own decisions and actions, and by positively 
     influencing the decisions and actions of others, help chart a 
     new and less violent direction for the entire Nation;
       Whereas students in every school district in the Nation 
     will be invited to take part in a day of nationwide 
     observance involving millions of their fellow students, and 
     will thereby be empowered to see themselves as significant 
     agents in a wave of positive social change; and
       Whereas the observance of this day will give American 
     students the opportunity to make an earnest decision about 
     their future by voluntarily signing the ``Student Pledge 
     Against Gun Violence'', and sincerely promise that they will 
     never take a gun to school, will never use a gun to settle a 
     dispute, and will use their influence to prevent friends from 
     using guns to settle disputes: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That (1) the Senate designates October 8, 1998, 
     as ``the Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun 
     Violence''; and
       (2) the President should be authorized and requested to 
     issue a proclamation calling upon the school children of the 
     United States to observe that day with appropriate ceremonies 
     and activities.

 Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I submit a resolution that passed 
the Senate last year unanimously. My resolution, which I am introducing 
today with Senator Kempthorne and more than 50 original cosponsors, 
establishes October 8 as the Day of Concern about Young People and Gun 
Violence.
  Tragically, this resolution has special meaning for all of us after 
the events of last Friday. While, thankfully, no children were directly 
involved in the slayings of Officer Jacob Chestnut and Special Agent 
John Gibson, certainly the officers' children and young people across 
the nation were hurt and horrified by the violence that occurred in our 
nation's Capitol.
  I am once again submitting this resolution because I am convinced the 
best way to prevent gun violence is by reaching out to individual 
children and helping them make the right decisions. This resolution 
gives parents, teachers, government leaders, service clubs, police 
departments, and others a special day to focus on the problems today of 
young people and gun violence. October is National Crime Prevention 
Month--the perfect time to center our attention of the special needs of 
our kids and gun violence.
  A Minnesota Homemaker, Mary Lewis Grow, developed this idea for a 
``Day of Concern for Young People and Gun Violence''. Other groups, 
such as Mothers Against Violence in America, the National Parent 
Teacher Association, and the American Medical Association have joined 
the effort to establish a special day in which to express our concern 
about our children and gun violence. The proclamation of a special day 
of recognition also provided support to a national effort to encourage 
students to sign a pledge against gun violence. In 1997, 47,000 
students in Washington State signed the pledge card, as did more than 
200,000 children in New York City, and tens of thousands more across 
the nation.
  The Student Pledge Against Gun Violence calls for a national 
observance on October 8 to give students the chance to make a promise, 
in writing, that they will do their part to prevent gun violence. The 
students' pledge promises three things: (1) they will never carry a gun 
to school; (2) they will never resolve a dispute with a gun; and (3) 
they will use their influence with friends to discourage them from 
resolving disputes with guns.
  Just think of the lives we could have saved if all students had 
signed--and lived up to-- such a pledge last year. Consider that in the 
months between today and the day we demonstrated our concern about 
youth violence last year, we've had an outbreak of school violence. 
Eleven students and two teachers have been killed and more than 40 
students have been wounded in shootings by children. In addition, we've 
lost thousands of children in what has become the all-too-common 
violence of drive-by shootings, drug wars, and other crime and in self-
inflicted and unintentional shootings.

  Last year, Senator Kempthorne and I led the cosponsorship drive of 
this resolution after his 17-year-old neighbor was murdered by a 19-
year-old in a random act of violence in Washington state. Ann Harris' 
parents vowed to transform their grief into an opportunity to help 
teach our young people to care about each other and to stop the 
violence. We both pledged our support.
  We all have been heartened by statistics showing crime in America on 
the decline. Many factors are involved, including community-based 
policing, stiffer sentences for those convicted, youth crime prevention 
programs, and population demographics. None of us intend to rest on our 
success because we still have far, far too much crime and violence in 
this society.
  So, we must find the programs that work and focus our limited 
resources on those. We must get tough on violent criminals--even if 
they are young--to protect the rest of society from their terrible 
actions. And we, each and every one of us, must make time to spend with 
our children, our neighbor's children, and the children who have no one 
else to care about them. Only when we reach out to our most vulnerable 
citizens--our kids--will we drop youth violence to zero.
  Mr. President, I urge all of my colleagues to join in this simple 
effort to focus attention on gun violence among youth by proclaiming 
October 8 the ``Day of Concern about Young People and Gun Violence.'' 
We introduce this resolution today in the hopes of getting all 100 
Senators to cosponsor this resolution prior to its passage, which we 
hope will occur in September. This is an easy step for us to help 
facilitate the work that must go on in each community across America, 
as parents, teachers, friends and students try to prevent gun violence 
before it continues to ruin countless lives.




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