[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 156 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14236-S14237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          VIOLENCE IN AMERICA

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, what I came to the floor to talk about is a 
combination of issues that come together in the issue of violence. We 
watched the great tragedy as a fellow entered a workplace in Hawaii the 
week before last and killed some of his coworkers. Last week in 
Seattle, another man went into a business and shot and killed 
individuals. All of us, as Americans, are tremendously frustrated by 
this expression of violence or people seeming to want to solve their 
personal problems by acting in a very violent fashion. The Washington 
Post poll on Sunday showed that the No. 2 issue among Republicans was 
violence in the schools; the No. 4 issue among Democrats, violence in 
the schools; the No. 2 issue among Independents in America was 
violence, violence in the schools.
  Our President last week suggested we live in a very violent society, 
when in fact violence is down substantially in our country. It is true 
that it is. We have come off a very violent year, but over the last 7 
years the average rate of acts of violence is dropping, in the broad 
sense. Yet we have had some of these tremendously public-attention-
gathering events that caused the American public to be concerned, as 
they are.
  Of course, the issue I want to speak briefly about this morning is 
the question of how we fix this violent expression in our society. Last 
week, the President, Janet Reno, and Al Gore said there is a quick and 
easy way to fix it: We just need to pass a few more laws; gun laws, 
that is. We need to add to the 25,000 to 30,000 gun laws that are 
already on the books. If we do that, we will make America a safer place 
in which to live. Or at least we will say, politically, to meet the 
polls the Washington Post presented to us on Sunday, that if we pass 
the laws, the public at least will think America is a safer place in 
which to live. By that, we will be able to curry their political favor 
in the next election.

  If gun laws make America a safer place, then what happened in Hawaii 
should not have happened; what happened in Seattle should not have 
happened; what happened in Littleton, CO, at Columbine High School, 
should not have happened--because there are laws to stop that. Mr. 
President, 13 laws were violated, tragically, by those two young men 
who later took their lives at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, 
after they had killed so many of their classmates. But there was a law 
to stop them. Then why did it happen?
  I do not know the answer to why it happened. I do know they broke a 
lot of laws to cause it to happen. Yet our President last week, and the 
Vice President, and the Attorney General said give us more laws and the 
world will be a safer place. We have all been on this floor discussing, 
for well over a year, our frustrations with problems with our culture, 
problems with our public schools. People are acting out their 
frustrations in violent ways by taking other people's lives. My guess 
is, you cannot legislate a fix on that one.
  There are other problems within our society that have to be 
addressed. So let me focus for just a moment on Hawaii. There, we all 
know what happened. The fellow has been caught. We all know now he 
probably, during that act, was mentally incompetent, mentally in 
trouble, mentally deranged. But his actions cost lives.
  His actions happened in a unique environment, though. Hawaii has more 
gun laws, to control gun ownership and gun usage, than any other State 
in the United States. So would logic not follow, at least the logic of 
the President and the Vice President and the Attorney General, if that 
were so, Hawaii should have been a terribly safe place? Hawaii is the 
only State in the Nation where you not only register every gun you have 
with the local and State authorities, you also register the bullets--
you register the ammunition. Somehow, politicians in the State 
legislature in Hawaii thought that would make Hawaii a safe place--the 
only State in the Nation.
  It just so happens, Janet Reno and Al Gore and the President want us 
to do the same in this country. But it did not stop the individual who 
killed his colleagues in Hawaii.
  How about a permit to purchase? Of course, that is exactly what some 
of our colleagues would want here. Hawaii requires a permit to purchase 
any kind of gun--not just one permit for multiple purchases but a 
permit for every purchase--and a full background check, and the 
requirement that you must be at least 21 years of age to own a gun.
  What about assault pistols and Saturday night specials and all those 
kinds of buzzwords about guns that have become villains here on the 
floor for political purposes? All of those are outlawed in Hawaii. It 
is against the law to own them. It is against the law to have them. All 
of that is the law in Hawaii. The man who did the killings in Hawaii 
had met all of the requirements of the law. Yet the law did not protect 
the citizens whose families now mourn their death.
  How about high-capacity magazines? That was a fully debated issue 
here on the floor of the Senate this past year. I was on the floor with 
Senator Hatch and Senator Lautenberg on that issue after Littleton. It 
is against the law in Hawaii.
  Then there are the restrictions on places of possession, where you 
simply cannot have a gun: A business; you can't travel with one, only 
in the owner's home and in very restricted places; or if you are 
traveling from the home to the firing range or the pistol range for 
target practice, you may have a gun on your person. Those are tough 
laws in Hawaii. Yet people are dead. Of course, I mentioned 
transportation and the restriction on transportation. All of those are 
parts of the laws that guard citizens against the violent acts of 
others with the use of a firearm in the State of Hawaii.
  The President, the Vice President, and the Attorney General seem not 
to understand that or, if they do, they are

[[Page S14237]]

finding another reason to express a need for greater gun control in 
this country. I am not sure what that need is. We all know our citizens 
are concerned about violence.
  We all know we have citizens in our country who act out their 
frustrations in violent ways. It is tragic that we believe we can 
simply turn to Congress that will pass a law and, therefore, the 
violence will go away.
  Are the President and the Vice President and the Attorney General 
trying to hide something? Are they trying to hide the fact that during 
the Clinton administration arrests and prosecutions of citizens who 
violate Federal firearms laws has dropped by over 70 percent?
  Is the President trying to mask the fact that the Puerto Rican 
terrorists to whom he offered clemency were violators of Federal 
firearms laws and they killed American citizens?
  Is this President, once again, trying to throw up a political 
smokescreen by simply saying we need more laws against the use of guns 
or the ownership of guns or the second amendment rights when he, the 
President, in my opinion, has violated the intent of the laws as they 
now stand? If you do not use the law, if you do not prosecute under the 
law, if you do not enforce the law, then the laws are no good.
  That is the message I send to Bill Clinton today: Mr. Clinton, look 
at your own record. Your own Attorney General has let it be known to 
U.S. attorneys around the country that it is not worth their time to go 
after violators of Federal firearms laws.
  There is a great program down in Richmond, VA, where a Federal 
prosecutor said to the local police: You arrest them and I will throw 
them away, I will put them behind bars if they use a gun in the 
commission of a crime. Crime dropped precipitously but, more important, 
crimes with a gun involved dropped dramatically. One fellow was 
arrested at a 7-Eleven with a stick, and after he was arrested, the 
local police said: Why are you robbing a 7-Eleven with a stick?
  He said: Because if I used a firearm, they will lock me up down here.
  Mr. President, Bill Clinton, don't you get the message now? We have 
plenty of laws on the books if we had an Attorney General who was a 
real cop, a supercop, a tough person who was saying to her U.S. 
attorneys: Let's put them behind bars if they use guns; let's throw 
those kids out of school who take a gun to school. They do not have the 
right to be in our schools if they are putting the rest of our kids in 
jeopardy.
  Last year that happened over 3,000 times and only 13 were prosecuted. 
Sorry, Mr. President, sorry, Mr. Vice President, sorry, Ms. Attorney 
General, passing laws does not a safer world make. Enforcing the ones 
we have, being concerned about the culture, being concerned about the 
kids, their parents, and their educators in a way that not only makes a 
safe school but makes a concerned citizen is going to drop violence in 
America. Do not give the American public a political placebo by simply 
passing another law.
  I thank my colleague from Wyoming, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Idaho. Certainly, 
this is one of the issues that is contentious and will, I suppose, be 
debated some more. I agree with the notion we need to do something more 
than passing more laws. It has no evidence of success.

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