[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 147 (Tuesday, October 26, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H10839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              BAN TOY GUNS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, as I think a majority of the members of this 
House know, it is imperative for the safety of the citizens of this 
country and for the security of our children that we do something to 
crack down on the trafficking of guns.
  To discuss this further, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Towns).
  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for 
yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, let me point out that the gun that I have in my hand is 
a toy gun. It looks like a real gun, but it is a toy gun. This is the 
thing that I am hoping we will be able to come to grips with, that we 
need to ban toy guns. Too many of these guns look like real guns. Not 
only that, we have young people in this country who are being killed 
because of toy guns.
  In my own district, I have had youngsters killed because they had a 
toy gun in their hand, and the police officer did not know it was a toy 
and ended up shooting the person, and the person ended up dying.
  Not only that, we have people that are wounded and end up in the 
hospital and have hospital costs as a result of toy guns.
  Then someone said, well, put a red sticker on them, and then that way 
the person will know that it is a toy. Well, two things are happening 
with that. The criminals are now putting red around the front of their 
guns, and then the other thing is that one can take and pull this right 
off in no time flat. Then it looks like a real gun again. So we need to 
sort of make a decision to do something about toy guns.
  I have a display here. All these guns here look like real guns. We 
brought it into the airport, and all the people in the airport started 
ducking because they thought they were real. So if we have young people 
getting killed with these toys as a result of having these toy guns, it 
seems to me we should do something.
  Let me just give my colleagues some statistics that might be alarming 
to them, that every day in the United States of America, we lose a 
classroom full of children from guns. A classroom full of children die 
every day in the United States of America because of guns.
  Then we have toy guns, which I think that only wets a child's 
appetite to go get a real gun, and so, therefore, why should we not ban 
them? Because if it wets their appetite to go get a real gun, then I 
think that we need to do something.
  But the other part, which I do find this extremely alarming, that we 
have the criminals now robbing with toy guns. In New York, we have the 
Sullivan law. Of course, if they rob with a toy gun, then they are not 
violating the Sullivan law, so, therefore, the charges are less. But 
the point is that the crime still took place.
  Nobody is going to interview one to find out whether the gun is real 
or not. When one sticks it into a teller's face, the teller is going to 
give up the money. That is the problem, because they look like they are 
real.
  So I think the time has come when we must do something about it. I 
have been working on this in my own district. I had what we call a toy 
gun turn-in, that one turns in one's toy gun, and I would give one an 
educational toy. Let me tell my colleagues that children were coming 
and bringing these toy guns and getting these educational toys, which 
points out that once we begin to remind them, remind the parents and 
the grandparents about the danger of these toy guns, then people will 
get the message.
  So I am hoping that the Congress will go along with the bill that I 
have put forth and hope that I will be able to get the kind of support, 
to be able to get a hearing, and to be able to do the kind of things 
that need to be done to be able to protect our children.
  I think that, in a civilized country, to allow this kind of thing to 
happen and not to address the issue, to me, just is very alarming. So I 
am hoping that we will be able to save the lives of our children by 
making certain that these kind of guns are banned.
  I think that anybody could understand, in terms of police officers, a 
police officer is not going to interview a child. If a child is 
standing there with a gun like this in his hand or her hand, the police 
officer is not going to ask, is that gun real or is that gun a toy? The 
police officer is not going to do any interviewing. The police officer 
is going to shoot; and then after that, then we have got a problem.
  So I think that the time has come when we, as a Nation, should begin 
to address this issue and address it in a very serious fashion. I think 
that the best way to address it is to say that toy guns have no place 
in our society. We should move to eliminate them and to eliminate them 
now.
  So I ask my colleagues to join me in the gun turn-in, the toy gun 
turn-in, so that our children will be much safer in this Nation.

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