[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 75 (Monday, May 24, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H3482-H3488]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        URGENCY REQUIRED IN DEALING WITH GUN SAFETY LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from California (Mr.  George Miller) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, the purpose of my 
remarks is to try and gain support within the Republican leadership to 
move and to move in an urgent fashion with respect to the gun safety 
provisions that have passed the Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, this country has been shocked over the past 2 years as 
we have witnessed the shootings in Springfield, Oregon; Fayetteville, 
Tennessee; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Jonesboro, Kansas; West Paducah, 
Kentucky; Pearl, Mississippi; and in Littleton, Colorado, as we have 
seen children take up arms against their schoolmates, against their 
friends, in school.
  And while we will be discussing these matters at great length for a 
long period of time in the Congress as the Nation and the Congress come 
to grips with what we might do to try and prevent these actions in the 
future, one thing seems to be very clear among the people in this 
country, and I would hope among the people in the Congress and 
certainly among the Republican leadership, and that is that keeping 
guns out of the hands of kids will help to ensure that the feelings of 
anger and hostility do not lead to fatal shooting sprees.
  We clearly need to listen to children and parents and make sure that 
school counseling and mental health resources are sufficient, and we 
must understand that the causes of youth violence are complicated and 
that the solutions must be broad-based, and we must strive to 
understand what brings children to this point where they would take up 
this violent action with guns against their schoolmates.
  It is urgent to the American public that the Congress be able to 
respond to the problems of children having guns, having easy access to 
guns, and the irresponsibility of some parents who make those guns 
available or negligently leave those guns lying around the house, in 
many instances loaded and unlocked, with easy access by these children.
  Last week the Senate passed several pieces of legislation designed to 
improve the margins of gun safety, if you will, requiring background 
checks for all gun sales, including gun shows. We have a companion bill 
here by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Blagojevich) requiring new 
handguns to be sold with safety locks. We have companion legislation 
here by the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson) outlawing high 
density ammunition clips, so they will not be made available.
  I think that these are measures that the American public can 
understand, that the American public supports, that the American 
public, whatever their positions are with respect to gun control, 
understand that these are gun safety issues about the safety of our 
children.
  Our children are, in many instances, some of our most vulnerable 
citizens, who go to school with all the expectations that we all went 
to school with when we were growing up, only to find out that it can 
become a shooting gallery because of the easy access of a troubled teen 
or a troubled youngster to these kinds of guns. Yet what we see is an 
effort to somehow not address this legislation on a timely fashion, not 
to take that legislation from the Senate and to pass it, not to have a 
freestanding piece of legislation which we can pass and send to the 
Senate that is identical to that which they passed so that they might 
be able to put it on the President's desk before we leave for Memorial 
Day.
  No, what we see is, we are going to get one hearing this week, and 
then action perhaps in the committee sometime in June. Knowing the July 
schedule, knowing the August schedule. It is very likely, it is very 
likely, that America's schoolchildren will start the next school year 
without the Congress of the United States having addressed this issue.
  I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the very distinguished 
gentleman from California for yielding to me.
  I would say to the gentleman, 13 young people die from firearms every 
single day. That amounts to nearly 5,000 a year. It is the second 
leading cause of death among young people.
  There is a reason why there are more deaths from firearms of young 
people in the United States than in all 25 other industrialized nations 
combined. Something is wrong here. What is wrong is the fact that there 
are over 225 million guns available in the United States that 
invariably are getting into the hands of our young people.
  There are many things we could and should be doing.

                              {time}  1845

  For one thing, we have concealed weapons laws. In the Commonwealth of 
Virginia it is lawful to take a concealed weapon into a children's 
recreation center. In the Commonwealth of Virginia and many other 
States, one can take guns and park one's vehicle in a high school 
parking lot with a gun in or on one's vehicle. That does not make 
sense.
  It does not make sense to be able to buy more than one handgun a 
month. What people oftentimes do is buy a whole case of guns in one 
State. They travel up the East Coast and then set up shop on a street 
corner in an urban area and sell those guns.
  These are not responsible situations when we see the kind of death 
and destruction that is occurring from firearms every day. It is time 
for the House to take action to complement the action of the Senate, to 
put forward a good, responsible juvenile justice bill that will in fact 
make our schools and streets safer for our children.

[[Page H3483]]

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman 
from Virginia (Mr. Moran) very much for his contribution. His remarks 
point out the urgency and the danger that these guns present to young 
people in this Nation. He has pointed out that 13 children under the 
age of 18 are killed each day because of guns.
  Guns cause one in every four deaths of teenagers between the ages of 
15 and 19. Firearms are the fourth leading cause of accidental death 
among children five to 14. Clearly the easy availability and proximity 
of guns, handled in an irresponsible fashion, to young children is 
lethal to those children.
  We have an opportunity with the very common sense proposals that were 
presented in the Senate to address this matter and to address it now, 
with the same sense of urgency that parents are asking themselves 
about, whether or not they should send their children for the remainder 
of the school year, whether or not they should pull their children out 
of school before school closes, whether or not they should try to find 
another school that they might think will be more safe than the one 
they are in.
  But what we have learned over the last 18 months, we do not know what 
school that would be. We do not know where a troubled child has easy 
access to a gun and then acts out anger, frustration or problems that 
that child has by shooting their schoolmates.
  That is why we are asking the Republican leadership to schedule this 
debate, to schedule this vote this week before we go home for Memorial 
Day, Memorial Day, a rather significant day in the history of this 
country. But tragically now many will be celebrating Memorial Day at 
the loss of their children because of these tragic shootings. I think 
that is why we cannot play this by the ordinary rules of legislative 
procedure and process and jurisdiction and all of those arguments that 
are designed to keep these common sense approaches from coming to the 
floor of the House to be voted on.
  Why are they doing that? Because the people who oppose trigger locks 
on guns that are accessible to children, the people that are opposed to 
getting rid of the loophole for gun shows where one can buy guns and 
gun shows without a background check, that one would not be allowed to 
if one went into a gun shop, people who oppose limiting the high 
density ammunition clips, they want time to regroup, to rescramble, to 
put pressure on the Congress, to give campaign contributions, to lobby 
the Congress so that they can overwhelm the judgment and the 
determination of the American people.
  The Republican leadership ought not to become a tool for those 
interests, because it is those interests that are keeping guns in the 
presence of young children in an irresponsible fashion.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding to 
me, and I strongly associate with his comments.
  I have only been in Congress 3 years; but in the course of the time 
that I have been in Congress there have been eight multiple shootings 
on school yards.
  I look at my colleague, the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette), 
she and I were present earlier before tragic shootings in our State, 
seeking the attention of the Republican leadership and of this Congress 
to at least allow a vote on simple, common sense, direct approaches 
that would minimize the impact of gun violence with our children.
  We pleaded, for instance, to have the opportunity to at least vote on 
the most benign of child access protection legislation in the last 
Congress. We were denied the opportunity in the last juvenile justice 
bill to have any vote at all on any legislation, any amendment, even 
modestly taking the tack of trying to increase the safety of guns in 
the home.
  It was frustrating for me that we could have 15 States, starting with 
the State that was the home of the Chair of that subcommittee that had 
child access protection, the State of Florida, 15 States have followed, 
and yet we have not been able to have the most innocuous of votes in 
this Chamber.
  I am pleased that finally we are starting to see some movement, that 
we have seen some action on the Senate side, and perhaps the Republican 
leadership will find it in their heart to allow a vote on the floor of 
this Chamber. There are a number of proposals that have absolutely 
nothing to do with the rights of the hunting population around this 
country. In fact, they are supported by the overwhelming majority of 
gun owners.
  Why? Why do we still sell guns in this country that do not tell one 
whether or not there is a bullet in the chamber? There are dozens of 
people who are killed every year because of the so-called unloaded gun. 
Why is it that we do not spend a few cents, up to 75 cents or a dollar, 
to have a mechanism so that when the clip is removed from an automatic 
pistol, that it sweeps the chamber and unloads it? Why is it that there 
are more consumer protection devices for toy guns than real guns?
  Mr. Speaker, I think the time has come for the people on this floor 
to seize control of this issue ourselves. If it takes a discharge 
petition in order to be able to vote on these simple, common sense 
steps that will save children's lives, that are in fact supported not 
just by the majority of Americans, but by the majority of the gun-
owning Americans, I think that the time has come.
  I deeply appreciate the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) 
yielding me some time. I appreciate this discussion that is taking 
place here this evening. I hope the American public will add their 
voice so that they are in fact heard and this Congress takes its head 
out of the sand, takes simple, common sense steps that will in fact 
save the lives of children in America.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman 
from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for his remarks, and he does point out the 
incredible inconsistency that we would put child-proof caps on aspirin, 
child-proof locks on gates and child-proof locks on car doors, and all 
of these efforts to save our most precious resources, the children of 
this Nation, but we would not think about doing it with respect to a 
lethal weapon like a gun that is unfortunately all too often left lying 
around the house.

  Fifty-five percent of the handgun owners keep their guns loaded in 
their homes, and 34 percent of them keep them loaded and unlocked, 
loaded and unlocked in their homes, and in many instances with very 
young children present; and tragically sometimes, as we know, children 
with a lot of difficult problems who end up then acting out in a 
fashion that is lethal to their friends and to their classmates.
  So I think that is why, as we see America starting to respond to the 
tragedies in Oregon and Colorado and Georgia and elsewhere, they start 
to say, why should people not have to be responsible in all the homes 
with locking the gun with the trigger lock, and the people who sell 
these guns be responsible for providing trigger locks with the sale of 
these guns so that their children can be safe, so that they can know 
that it is the denial of the easy and spontaneous access.
  That does not mean that somebody someday will not hammer the lock off 
of the gun or, as we saw tragically witnessed here recently, break off 
the locks on the cabinet, but it is the standard of care that we owe 
our children.
  I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for raising those 
points.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).
  Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, Columbine High School is just a few blocks 
from my congressional district. Columbine High School had its 
graduation this last weekend, honoring those kids who graduated with 
their class and honoring those who could not be there.
  No one would be so shallow as to suggest that the only solution to 
these terrible shootings we have had in high schools around the country 
is gun control. But a troubled youth who does not have a gun is a 
troubled youth. A troubled youth with a gun is a killer.
  I have been inundated with calls. Many of my colleagues have been 
inundated with calls from around the country, from suburban parents, 
moms and dads, from urban and rural parents, moms and dads, asking the 
simple question: Why cannot we do something, a little something, to 
keep guns out of the hands of kids?

[[Page H3484]]

  No one believes that children in an unsupervised way, especially in 
or around a school, should have a gun. There are several proposals that 
we can pass on behalf of the American public and on behalf of American 
children, simple proposals which will give safety for guns and kids.
  The first proposal is one which will make gun shows comply with the 
same laws that gun shops comply with. Gun shop owners, to sell a gun to 
somebody, have got to conduct a background check. They have got to have 
some identification to know that the person buying the gun is 18 years 
old or older. They have to have some kind of registration and way to 
trace that they sold the gun.
  Gun shows can have numerous dealers which are not registered and 
which can sell guns to anybody for any amount of money, no questions 
asked. One year ago this last June, a staff member from my Denver 
office walked into a gun show in the Denver area, the Tanner Gun Show. 
The Tanner Gun Show is held 10 times a year. He bought a gun, no 
questions asked, cash on the barrel head, $450. It was a semi-automatic 
weapon. The two boys at Columbine High School bought their guns at the 
Tanner Gun Show, the very same gun show we had been at just a few 
months before.
  Another thing we can do before we leave this week is we can pass 
legislation banning once and for all multiple-round ammunition 
cartridges. Why on earth does one need a cartridge of 15 or 25 or 30 
bullets to hunt? One does not need those. Those cartridges are designed 
to kill human beings; and kill human beings they did, at Columbine High 
School. They kill police officers around the country every year. We 
thought we banned them in 1995. But because of a loophole in the law, 
these cartridges are still legally available, and that loophole needs 
to be closed.
  Last, but certainly not least, Congress can pass legislation this 
week which will establish child safety locks on guns. This would 
prevent kids who should not have guns from getting them and using them. 
This is a common sense proposal. Parents across the country want to 
know why Congress has not enacted this law already.
  As I said, Columbine High School's graduation was last Friday. Many 
more schools will still be in session through next week. Congress 
should send a message to the parents across America that we care; that 
part of the solution, although not all of the solution, is that 
Congress will take steps to enact child gun safety laws, not next 
month, not next fall, not sometime in the future, but now, before 
school is out, to begin to ensure the safety of every child across 
America.
  That is why I appreciate the gentleman from California (Mr. George 
Miller) taking on this important task tonight. That is why I intend to 
work this week to let our Speaker and everyone in this Congress know 
Congress must discuss child gun safety legislation and pass common 
sense, narrowly drawn rules before we leave for the Memorial Day 
recess. The only and best way we can memorialize these kids this week 
in Congress is to pass legislation before Memorial Day.

                              {time}  1900

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman 
very much for her remarks and thank her for the kind of vehicle she is 
going to provide the Congress to express its opinion to get this done 
now.
  As she points out, these are provisions, the safety locks on guns, 
the getting rid of the loophole provided by gun shows as opposed to gun 
shops, and multiple rounds, high-density ammunition clippings, these 
are very common-sense remedies and closure of loopholes that the 
American people understand and that they support.
  The Senators in the United States Senate have passed these 
provisions. They should be sent over here. We should pass a 
freestanding bill and make sure that we can have this become law before 
our children get back to school. I think it is important that we 
address it with that kind of urgency.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
California for yielding. I particularly thank him for allowing me to 
join him and my colleagues on an issue of such moment, if you will, and 
to be able to say to the American people and to my colleague, common 
sense tells us that guns do kill.
  They do kill. Ask any law enforcement officer, any person who is 
responsible for keeping law and order. Ask teachers. Ask parents. And, 
of course, ask injured children and ask the loved ones of those 
children who are killed.
  I have heard the response by those who are advocates of the idea that 
the Second Amendment should prevail above all, that guns do not kill, 
people do. But people use guns to kill. And I think the American people 
are way out in front on this issue right now, because if we read the 
Second Amendment, it has to do with the keeping of a militia for a 
founding country of 13 colonies trying to survive.
  And do my colleagues know what? We have a militia, the National 
Guard. And no one is trying to take guns away from the National Guard. 
We also know that the people of America have guns in their homes, and 
no one is trying to take guns away from the American people.
  But in 1995, over 440 children died just of unintentional shootings 
alone. In my home City of Houston, Texas, a few years ago, almost 10 
years ago, I did something unheard of. I rose up off of City Council 
and said, we are going to pass an ordinance that holds adults 
responsible for allowing guns to get in the hands of children.
  If my colleagues know Texas, and I do not think my fellow Texans will 
allow me to praise them as well as to cite that it was an unheard of 
thing to do for a City Council member to do in the City of Houston. And 
there was a lot of opposition. The National Rifle Association sent 
people in to testify against it. But the mothers came forward and said, 
we want this.
  Out of that ordinance came a State law that is now in place in the 
State of Texas that holds parents responsible, holds parents 
responsible, for letting guns get in the hands of children. And what we 
have seen is a 50-percent decrease in unintentional shootings since 
that was what it was to be directed toward.
  To the family in Conyers, Georgia, if those guns had been more 
secure, as we are attempting to say to parents, not only in a nice 
display case with a glass front that could be broken, but away from the 
eyesight of children, it is our responsibility to try and keep them 
safe, but it is our responsibility to keep law enforcement officers 
safe as well.
  Firearms are the fourth leading cause of accidental death among 
children 5 to 14 and the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 
years old. If this were a medical problem, we would call it an 
epidemic. In 1994, 70 percent of the murder victims between the ages of 
15 and 17 were killed by a handgun and 2 in 25 high school students, 
almost 8 percent, reported having carried a gun in the last 30 days.
  As a member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, we have had an 
opportunity to move this legislation forward. In fact, we could have 
done just what the Senate did to amend the juvenile bill that the 
Senate just passed with common-sense response to these gun issues.
  We could, for example, stamp out the loophole in gun shows. 
Enormously important. We could provide for the safety locks that would 
protect our children and to realize that they protect others, as well.
  My colleagues could not imagine the gun shows that travel around the 
Nation. And many times there are store owners that participate in these 
gun shows. But let me assure my colleagues, there are a lot of 
individuals who come and say, I have no license. I have no permit. I 
have nothing. I am just here. And the reason I have nothing is because 
these are in my personal possession.
  This is a loophole. And so, we get the individual driving up to the 
gun show with 25 AK-47s and they say, this is part of my personal 
ownership. And they sell 10 or 15 to an individual who gives no reason. 
I have talked to law enforcement officers who went and bought a gun 
from someone, an automatic rifle, and said, ``I am going to use this to 
kill a cop in New York.'' And the person who was unlicensed said, ``All 
right. Here is a silencer to go with it. But make sure when you do it, 
do not call my name.''

[[Page H3485]]

  There are too many guns in America. And most Americans want to be 
safe in their homes. They want law enforcement officers to be safe, as 
well. And so, I am joining with my colleagues to ensure the closing the 
loophole in the gun shows. I would like to see a Brady waiting period 
for those gun shows to protect individuals. I want to see raising the 
handgun purchase age from 18 to 21. I think child safety locks are an 
imperative.
  And frankly, I wish we could pass the same legislation in the 
comprehensive gun legislation offered by my colleague, the gentlewoman 
from New York (Mrs. McCarthy) to deal with the idea of holding adults 
responsible.
  When I spoke to some parents and teachers and explained to them that, 
no, I am not trying to disadvantage parents, I chair the Congressional 
Children's Caucus, I do not want to point the blame and put parents, 
who are already distraught, in a situation where they are criminally 
liable, but I think such a piece of legislation is common sense, and I 
think if they understand it fully, they would be running towards 
supporting it.
  Because what it says is, know what your children are doing. Do not 
leave guns on coffee tables and in places conspicuously, where the 
child can get it. And if their child is in a garage or reading the 
Internet and building bombs, they need to know what is going on. 
Because we have to protect their children and our children. And how 
much more can we get from not listening to our children.
  Let me close by simply saying to my colleagues, and I thank again the 
gentleman from California for yielding, that we know that there are 
other aspects of this, the video and entertainment industry. I am 
working on legislation to deal with mental health services, an omnibus 
mental health services for our children that deals with schools but 
also deals with other needs that our children have, so that if they are 
on medication they are not off of it one day and on it the next day.
  I think America should be ashamed that we have a children's memorial 
that acknowledges the number of children that have been killed by guns. 
And allow me to share with my colleagues.
  Chris Hollowell, age 5, was unintentionally shot and killed by his 
10-year-old brother.
  Sean Harvey, 16, was killed by a man who mistakenly thought the boy 
was stealing the neighbor's car.
  Brian Crowell, 12, was unintentionally shot by a 14-year-old.
  Amanda Garza died from a gunshot wound to the head after shooting 
herself with a .357.
  Amanda Rogers, dead, 6 years old, was playing with a Nintendo with 
her cousin and was unintentionally shot by them.
  Karissa Miller, 2, was unintentionally shot and killed by a 7-year-
old boy.
  Christopher Murphy, 11 years old, the son of two police officers, 
unintentionally shot and killed by his 11-year-old friend.
  Christopher David Holt, 4, unintentionally shot and killed himself 
with a .357 Magnum.
  Amanda Drukenbrod, 13, shot and killed at home when a teenage boy was 
showing off his gun.
  I can go on and on, pages and pages of young children who died at the 
hand of a gun. Not a knife, not a stick, but a gun.
  I think it is time now to say that we will not go home for this 
Memorial Day recess unless we stand up and be counted in the United 
States Congress and put a bill on the President's desk that he can 
sign.
  I say to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), join us in 
getting this legislation on the floor of the House because our children 
are dying and we cannot stand by any longer.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman 
for her remarks and urge that the Speaker make this in order this week 
before we leave town for the Memorial Day break.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. 
McCarthy).
  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, my colleague from California 
(Mr. George Miller), he and I are on the same Committee on Education 
and the Workforce; and in the last past year and a half, we have talked 
about violence in our schools, we have talked about what can be done.
  A week ago Tuesday, we had six young people come in to talk to us, 
talk to us about how gun violence has affected their lives. And it was 
very hard because here we had so many young people that faced death, 
lost their friends.
  There are many of us that are victims. A lot of us are adults. We try 
and say we can handle that kind of pain. But even as adults, it is 
always hard. But to hear the young people talk about what happened in 
their schools, it was a real heartbreaker. And yet, here in Congress we 
continually hear silence.
  I came to Congress to try and reduce gun violence in this country. 
That was a promise I made to my son. It is a promise I have made to my 
new grandson. It is something I plan on doing. And we have had our 
Littletons, we have had our shootings in Georgia, so many shootings. 
But I want people to look at this because this is where people do not 
realize what is happening. We have a Littleton every single day.
  Every single day, we lose 13 young people, whether it is an 
accidental death, whether it is a suicide, or whether it is a homicide, 
we lose 13 young children a day.
  We have an opportunity here in Congress to try and do something. We 
have an obligation to the people of America to do something. We have 
been talking about comprehensive reform on reducing gun violence and 
helping our young people. And yet in the Senate the other night, when 
they asked for more money for school counselors and psychologists, it 
was voted down. That can be part of a comprehensive package.
  No one is saying that it is not just guns. There are a lot of factors 
that go into gun violence. The young fellow in Georgia, when he shot 
six of his classmates, he was really on the verge of suicide. He still 
does not understand why he did what he did.
  We can help a lot of these kids. What I am hearing constantly is, 
this is too big for all of us to handle. We cannot do anything about 
it. But do my colleagues know what? That is what we hear when they want 
defeat before they even start.
  We have to change the debate. When I am home in my district, I have 
NRA members that come up to me all the time, ``Carolyn, we support what 
you are doing.'' But then we have so many Members that are afraid of 
the NRA leadership. They are afraid of what they can do to them as 
congresspersons.
  Certainly, they are not going to come after me about guns in my 
district because the people in my district support me on what I am 
trying to do. But we have Members here, and they have every right to be 
afraid of the NRA because the NRA will come in and say things about the 
Member that have absolutely nothing to do with guns, or make up lies. 
And they do make up lies.
  What I am asking the American people, the mothers, the fathers of 
this land, call their congresspersons, give them the support that they 
need. Because if we only hear from one side, I guarantee my colleagues, 
in a couple of months, we will be back here when school opens again and 
there will be another shooting in the school and people will say, why 
can we not do something?
  A year ago, when we had a committee hearing, a psychologist said it 
was not a matter of if there would be another school shooting, it was a 
matter of when there would be another school shooting.

                              {time}  1915

  But a lot of these young people that were shot, killed, injured, they 
did not make the newspapers across the country. They might have made it 
in their hometown newspaper, but they did not make it on the front 
pages, because they are all individuals.
  My colleague before me talked about a health care crisis. We have 
four young people left in Colorado that have spinal cord injuries. Do 
you know what it is going to cost the American people on health care? 
The estimates, the low estimates of health care to our young people on 
a yearly basis for those that survive their injuries is $14 billion. 
$14 billion. Can you imagine what we could do with that? Can you 
imagine what we

[[Page H3486]]

could do with that money here in Congress? Education, health care, all 
the things that we want to do.
  I am asking every mom, every dad, let us hear from you. We have to 
hear your voices. Grassroots, that is what we need. That is what 
changes and certainly motivates this Congress, because if they do not, 
there are a number of us that will continue to fight to reduce gun 
violence in this country, but it would be nice if we had a few more 
voices to be heard so we could give our colleagues the strength to do 
the right thing. They have got to hear from you. If you want to make a 
difference, then your voice does count. Do not sit there saying, ``Oh, 
so and so will call. I don't have to.'' You have to let the 
Congresspeople here know what you want. Then we will win.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentlewoman very much 
for her remarks and think she makes a very important point. It is 
highly unlikely that we will have this kind of common sense gun 
legislation to help protect our children, to help protect our 
communities from the easily accessible and irresponsible ownership of 
guns, if the American people do not call their Members of Congress and 
insist upon it.
  Over the last couple of weeks as I have been out in the public in my 
district and talking to groups and just being on the streets of my 
district, people have come to me and asked time and again: Why can you 
not do this and do it now?
  When they saw the Senate not do it, they were infuriated, and the 
Senate doubled back and took a new vote and then came in line with what 
the American people wanted. Then the Senate doubled back a second time 
and came in line with what the American people wanted.
  But apparently the Republican leadership in this House and the NRA 
are going to delay this legislation, fully understanding that delay is 
the enemy of legislation, that you get it jammed up at the end of the 
session against a recess, against the appropriations bills, and this 
starts to fall through the cracks, and it is nobody's fault and it is 
everybody's fault.
  We need the American people to call the Republican leadership, to 
call their Members of Congress and tell them that these three or four 
measures, very common sensical measures, should be passed and should be 
passed immediately. They could, if in fact the leadership wanted to do 
it, be passed before we leave for Memorial Day.
  They are having a hearing on the day we leave town, because then they 
are hoping for a week where there will not be any discussion of this 
measure and there will not be a sense of urgency about the American 
people to have Congress address this when we come back, and pretty soon 
we will find ourselves addressing it in September or October. It is the 
oldest legislative strategy in this town, just delay and delay.
  Already we see Members that are supporters of the NRA going around 
the floor with checklists from the NRA trying to line up their support, 
who they have given their contributions to, will they stand tough on 
this. That is why they want the time. They want the time to kill this 
bill, not to give it great general consideration but to kill these 
ideas that have passed overwhelmingly in the Senate of the United 
States.
  I would hope that people would heed your call for them to call 
Members of Congress and ask them to pass these child gun safety 
measures that have been passed by the Senate.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and I 
particularly thank him for his leadership on this special order, 
because there is a hunger and a thirst in the American public for this 
legislation and for education about this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, this chart came home to the American people finally in 
Littleton and in Georgia. Close to 60,000 deaths during the tragic 
Vietnam War for 11 years. That is compared to 11 years at home, close 
to 400,000 deaths, increasingly the deaths of children. The reason that 
so many of us on both sides of the aisle cannot go home for Memorial 
Day without a bill is that we cannot face our constituents without a 
bill, not after the massacre in Littleton and the attempted massacre in 
Georgia.
  I want to focus for just a few minutes on gun shows, because frankly 
I was ignorant until recently of the fact that anybody can buy a gun at 
a gun show free of any Federal requirement. I am sure most of the 
public does not know that there is no Federal requirement that says 
that a person with a mental defect has to be checked before buying at a 
gun show, with a felony conviction has to be checked before buying at a 
gun show, or even that a child has to be checked before buying at a gun 
show. Remember that some of the guns used in Littleton were bought at a 
gun show.
  The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran) was on the floor earlier. He 
is from the district adjoining mine. My district has an absolute ban on 
guns of any and every kind. As I speak, my district is flooded with 
guns of every kind. Many of those guns come from gun shows in Virginia, 
because anybody can buy a gun at gun shows in Virginia. Maryland also 
provides guns through gunrunning into the District of Columbia.
  That is why we need Federal law and Federal regulation. State by 
State is almost useless, given how porous are the boundaries in our 
country. We can go from one place to the other. You do not have to go 
through any kind of check to go from one place to the other, and it is 
a free country and we would not want you to have to go through a check. 
But we do want to contain these guns so that we can begin to deal with 
these contrasts.
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), the ranking member of the 
Committee on Government Reform, and I sat on a special hearing before 
the Georgia incident where we heard astounding testimony from the GAO 
on how easy it is to buy .50 caliber sniper rifles from legitimate 
dealers, leave aside gun shows. Now, a .50 caliber sniper rifle is a 
rifle that can penetrate armor if you stand out on the back steps of 
the Capitol and aim it toward the Lincoln Memorial.
  The GAO went undercover and asked for .50 caliber weapons of the 
kind, to use their words, that would pierce a limousine or bring down a 
helicopter. My friends, this is the Nation's capital. The people who 
ride in limousines and helicopters are Members of Congress, the 
President, the Vice President, and members of the Cabinet.
  What this says, of course, is that even here, someone who wanted to 
take out anybody from the highest official to an ordinary citizen 
anywhere in the city or the region could buy a gun from a legitimate 
dealer, even telling them virtually that that is what they wanted to 
do. Imagine what a person with a mental defect could do by going to a 
gun show.

  We must remember that this very building was the site of the 
assassination of two brave Capitol policemen. That gun was shot by a 
schizophrenic man. At a gun show, he might easily have purchased such a 
weapon.
  The long and short of it, my friends, is that what we have in this 
country is massive gunrunning across the borders, between one State and 
another, sometimes shipped in large numbers. The result is that in the 
large cities such as the one I represent, the District of Columbia, the 
murders take place one by one. Now in the suburbs the murders take 
place in groups, by massacre. Choose your style. The difference is the 
same. They are all our children.
  I focus on gun shows this evening because of the ages of the 
youngsters in the last two incidents. A 15-year-old in Georgia, a 17 
and an 18-year-old in Littleton. These are precisely the ages of 
children that could go into a gun show today in many States and 
purchase a weapon.
  Sometimes we are told that what was passed in the Senate the other 
day will not make much difference, it is at the margins, why pass it? 
The simple answer to that is if it will not make much difference, then 
pass it. If in fact those who cherish guns think that these bills will 
not hurt them very much, then pass the bills. There will be some slight 
inconvenience to the legitimate public, but who would say that that 
inconvenience would not be worth it if the lives of only a few children 
were saved?
  And may I remind the House that most of the deaths we will never hear 
about because they are accidental deaths. We hear about the massacres, 
we hear about the drive-by shootings.

[[Page H3487]]

 But when these guns are kept in homes, they are most often used 
accidentally by family members or friends within the homes. The 15-
year-old youngster broke into a locked chest to get the gun that he 
used in suburban Georgia last week.
  The silent deaths, the accidental deaths will be reduced, and 
certainly the deaths that have outraged the country will be reduced if 
we pass the modest legislation that came forward finally from the 
Senate last week. That is the very least this House can do if we want 
to make sure that this gap never appears again in our country.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank very much the gentlewoman 
for her remarks. I want to thank my colleagues who joined me in this 
special order to try and urge the Republican leadership to pass this 
week the common sense gun safety provisions that have passed the Senate 
of the United States.
  We do so with the full understanding that the problems and the 
tragedies in Littleton or in Georgia or in Oregon or in Kentucky and 
other such States where young people have taken up guns and assaulted 
and killed their classmates and their friends, that that problem will 
not be addressed solely with the questions of gun safety legislation. 
But clearly in each of these cases or most of these cases, what we find 
is the easy access of young children, in some cases disturbed young 
children with the irresponsible possession of guns in the home.
  We believe that trigger locks will help increase the margin of safety 
in our communities. We believe that not letting young people go into 
gun shows or people go into gun shows on behalf of young people and 
with no questions asked be able to buy a gun, a gun they could not buy 
if they went into a gun shop. They could not do that. They would have 
to undergo that check. We urge the leadership to pass these common 
sense gun safety measures.
  I yield to the gentleman from Guam.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for 
yielding. I want to extend my congratulations for this excellent 
special order on the issue of the proliferation of guns. Even in a 
place as remote as Guam, which lies some 9,000 miles away from here, a 
couple of weeks ago a couple of young ladies in middle school were 
detained in school for having handguns, bringing handguns to school. 
Guam, the place that I come from, is a place where lots of people own 
weapons.

                              {time}  1930

  Fortunately, most people on Guam who feel that they need to own 
weapons are in total agreement with their registration and with their 
regulation, so I am happy to report that. But it appears to me that 
certainly the country's supply of weapons, the availability of weapons, 
the easy access of weapons is really the crux of what we are getting 
at.
  It is rather clear that the guns in and of themselves may not be 
causing these violent episodes that our Nation has been subjected to, 
but certainly the fact that the weapons are so easily available has 
made sometimes what would be seen as minor violent acts turn into 
major, major tragedies, and I cannot help but wonder where is the 
wisdom that is supposed to be part of the legislative body that we 
belong to in trying not to address this issue when it is rather obvious 
that this cries out for action.
  As a career educator, and actually early on in my career I was what 
would be seen as a disciplinarian in a very large high school, and I 
served in that capacity for several years, one of the things that 
certainly would help us in trying to deal with all the issues that are 
attendant to the growth of children and the work of children inside 
educational institutions is to not allow them the opportunity to have 
things that would be harmful to them. And we think of all the things 
that we deny them that would be harmful to them, think of all the 
efforts, extraordinary efforts, that we go through to deny them things 
that we know are not in their own best interests, things which may lead 
to tragic circumstances; and yet we seem to hesitate, we seem to falter 
when it comes to the issue of guns.
  So I certainly appreciate and I want to congratulate the work of the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Miller) and all the other speakers 
during this special order.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman 
from Guam.
  Finally, I just like to say, Mr. Speaker, that I had an opportunity 
to meet with a group of students at Pinole Valley High School in my 
district and had subsequent conversations with five of those students, 
Brian Davenport, Marcus Maxwell, Jamian Johnson, Kari Washington and 
Brett Parsons about Littleton, and those students and the students in 
the larger group had spent a great deal of time watching the news, 
listening to the news on the Internet, over the networks and elsewhere, 
acquiring information about what took place at Littleton.
  They clearly understood that this was about them, it was about their 
peers, it was about their generation, children of their same age, and 
they were terribly troubled about it, and they understood that this is 
not a problem that can be answered with one solution, that it is, in 
fact, very complex.
  I was also quite pleasantly surprised, the extent to which the 
students understood they clearly had a very strong role to play in the 
solution to these outbreaks of rage and the violence and the killing 
that have taken place in these schools, that they understood that maybe 
they should be nicer to some of their fellow students, that there were 
students who they knew were somewhat loners or did not feel a part of 
the student body, that they should extend themselves, they should go 
over and talk to them, that maybe they should stop making fun of 
students or characterizing students because of the way they dressed, 
whether they had the latest clothes or they did not have the latest 
clothes, or the latest sneakers, or the wrong color clothes or what 
have you; that they had to think about not doing that, that students 
should not be characterized and categorized whether or not they 
participate in a religious organization after school or the debate club 
or they were on the track team or the football team.
  All of these cliques that are natural, very, very natural during the 
adolescent years in schools, they understood that that was unfair to 
those students.
  They had formed, they had many celebrations of their differences at 
Pinole High School over the years. The day I was there, they decided to 
celebrate their unity, to celebrate their sameness, to celebrate the 
fact that they were part of one student body drawn from many different 
communities.
  It was a very exciting thing to see happen in response to Littleton.
  So while we are focused on guns this evening and while we are focused 
on the need of the Republican leadership to expedite the consideration 
of these common sense gun safety measures, we also appreciate the 
complexity and the magnitude of this problem.
  And let us not forget, let us not forget as we keep talking about 
children and schools and violence and killings, that 25 million 
teenagers are enrolled in 20,000 schools nationwide. Eight of those 
youths in six schools perpetrated the school killings of the last 8 
months. Twenty-five million children came and went to school every day 
without being subjected to this danger or perpetrating this danger. We 
are talking about a handful of young children.
  Some people have suggested, and I think the minority whip said it 
this week in Salt Lake City: The problem is not guns; the problem is, 
we are raising children to kill children.
  No, we are not raising children to kill children. Twenty-five million 
teenagers went to school yesterday, the day before, and the day before 
Littleton and the day before all of these tragedies, and afterwards, 
and did not engage in the killing of their classmates or their friends. 
But a very small handful, because of the easy access and proximity and 
the irresponsible ownership of these guns and possession of these guns 
in their homes and the easy ability to purchase them through a loophole 
in the law at gun shows; that handful of students was able to 
perpetrate an incredible amount of violence and incredible amount of 
killing on their school friends and on their communities.
  So this is not to suggest that these are children of a generation of 
a culture of violence and killing because it

[[Page H3488]]

is not true. Those kinds of generalizations will cause us to miss the 
problem, will cause us to miss the complexity of it.
  But what we do know in this particular case was these young people 
had relatively easy access to these guns, and what we do know is that 
we have that part, as my colleagues know, that part of the solution 
coming together in the passage of these measures that have passed the 
Senate.
  So I think we ought to keep and we ought to understand our children, 
and we should not, we should not paint them with the very broad brush 
of a relatively and, well, less than two handfuls of children that have 
perpetrated this kind of violence over the last 18 months. If this was 
the culture of violence in this young generation, as Michael Males, who 
is at the School for Social Ecology at the University of California, 
Irvine, points out, if this was a culture of violence, if we had raised 
children to kill children, then these killings would not be thousands 
of miles apart and months apart. This is what all children would be 
doing.
  But they are not doing it. Like all of the children before them, they 
are going to school to get an education, to socialize and become part 
of their community, to grow up and to mature and decide what they are 
going to do with the rest of their lives. And their parents did not 
raise them to kill children.

  But some parents unfortunately have been very irresponsible about 
leaving loaded guns and leaving firearms around, easily accessible to 
their children, apparently have not had the kind of communication or 
have not imposed upon their children the kind of discipline I grew up 
with about a gun.
  I hunted, my father hunted, my children hunt. We have very, very 
strict rules about when one can touch a gun and when they cannot touch 
a gun and what to do with a gun in the home and what to do with the gun 
in the field.
  Now some parents apparently have not been able to convey that or not 
willing to convey that or do not understand the kind of risk. We have 
got to deal with the questions of that kind of parental 
irresponsibility and with placing some responsibility and liability on 
those who fail to be the proper custodians of their children and of 
these firearms.
  Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, the tragedy at Columbine was heartbreaking for 
all Americans, but it was particularly difficult for the people in my 
home state of Oregon, where we endured a similar tragedy just one year 
ago at Thurston High School in Springfield.
  At Thurston High, two young students were killed, and America reacted 
with sadness and sympathy.
  At Columbine High, as we all know, thirteen students were killed by 
the two gunmen. America reacted with profound grief and a renewed sense 
of urgency.
  Ladies and Gentlemen, thirteen children die every day in America--the 
result of handgun violence. Columbine happens every single day.
  It is not nearly as dramatic, there are no CNN cameras, the nation 
does not stop and hold its breath, and watch . . .
  But, every day in America, 13 children die unnecessary deaths from 
guns.
  This is a children's health epidemic--and it is high time this 
Congress start paying attention to it, and take some steps in the right 
direction.
  Now is the right time to begin the search for answers. Clearly, this 
is not an easy task. There are many approaches we can take to reduce 
youth violence:
  We can make it easier for parents to spend time with their children.
  We can reduce class size so teachers can identify troubled children, 
and get them the help they need.
  We can better teach our young people the value of human life.
  We can devote more resources to school counselors and mental health 
providers.
  And we can simply open up the channels of communication between 
adults and teenagers . . .
  What I've learned from listening to Oregon students in their schools, 
is that perhaps the most important thing we can do to make schools 
safer, is to create an atmosphere where it is more acceptable for 
students to talk to adults when they see danger signs.
  These are all important steps . . .
  Each will be helpful, but none alone or all together will be 
effective enough to curb this health epidemic without a commitment from 
this Congress to make guns less accessible to young people.
  Conflicts and emotions that get the better of people can sometimes be 
sorted out with words, sometimes they get sorted out with fists, or 
with knives . . .
  But the only tool of anger that can mow down thirteen students in a 
school library--is a gun.
  Simply passing laws will not address the root causes of this tragedy, 
but there are steps we can take to keep guns out of the hands of 
violent juveniles.
  That is why I urge my colleagues to support reasonable gun safety 
measures being introduced by Democrats:
  First, let's close the ``gun show loophole,'' which allows criminals 
to trade weapons anonymously. By instituting background checks for 
those seeking to anonymously purchase firearms at gun shows, we can 
make guns less accessible to criminals, and to violent youths.
  Second, let's raise the minimum age for handgun purchases from 18 to 
21.
  Third, let's make sure that guns are childproofed at least as well as 
a bottle of aspirin--by requiring gunmakers to equip all guns with 
child safety locks.
  And finally, let's show the American people that we're serious about 
stopping the illegal transfer of guns. I hope my colleagues will join 
Mr. Wexler of Florida, myself, 95 other Democrats, and one Republican, 
Ms. Morella, in supporting HR 315--a bill which limits the number of 
handgun purchases to one per month.
  Once again, I don't think that any law will ever be a complete 
solution. None of us do.
  But we're not expected to always find the complete solution. We are 
here to do what we can to make this country better, safer, healthier, 
and more prosperous.
  These sensible measures are steps in the right direction, steps down 
a right and sensible path.
  I hope our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will take these 
steps with us. Sooner rather than later.
  Because this is an epidemic that waits for none of us. Every day we 
wait--thirteen more children die--another Columbine--every single day.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, these three measures 
that have passed the Senate are the beginning step in that area, so I 
want to thank my colleagues who joined me in this special order. I 
plead with the American public to call their Member of Congress, to 
call the Republican leadership, ask them to schedule these gun safety 
measures as soon as possible, to do it this week. We have a relatively 
clear calendar. It can all be passed and wrapped up before we go home 
for the Memorial Day break.

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