[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 21 (Wednesday, March 1, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1018-S1019]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUELL ELEMENTARY SHOOTING

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I am saddened to come to the floor this 
afternoon to speak about a tragedy that occurred yesterday in my home 
State of Michigan.
  Yesterday morning, in room No. 6 at Buell Elementary School in Mount 
Morris Township near Flint, a first-grade student allegedly shot and 
killed his young classmate, Kayla Rolland.
  We don't yet know all the facts about how the first-grader gained 
access to the handgun or whether the shooting was accidental or 
intentional. We do know, however, that one girl lost her young life in 
this tragedy and the children at Buell Elementary are scared

[[Page S1019]]

and confused and their parents deeply concerned.
  Although grief counselors and social workers are at the elementary 
school now and will work their hardest to help these children 
understand and cope with the trauma, there is really no amount of 
counseling that can replace the innocence these children have lost.
  The class of 22 students who witnessed the shooting is looking for 
answers and so are most of the rest of us. How can we make sense of 
this tragedy and the apparent relative ease with which a 6-year-old 
brought a 32-caliber semiautomatic handgun to school?
  It is impossible to come to terms with this or any of the other 
shooting tragedies in this country that claim the lives of 12 children 
on the average each day. Yet always after a tragedy such as this one, 
we ask ourselves if it could have been prevented. The answer is a 
resounding yes. Congress can and must work to keep guns out of the 
hands of children.
  It has now been almost 1 year since the deadly shooting at Columbine 
and still Congress has done nothing to help prevent these school 
shootings.
  Lori Mizzi-Spillane, a Michigan coordinator of the Million Mom March, 
an organization advocating for stricter Federal firearms laws, asks in 
her words, ``What is it going to take now for people to wake up?''
  What will it take for us to ``wake up'' and pass legislation 
requiring firearms to be sold or transferred with storage or safety 
devices? What will it take for us to ``wake up'' and pass child access 
prevention legislation which would require that adults store firearms 
safely and securely in places that are reasonably inaccessible to 
children? Together, both Houses must enact these and other commonsense 
gun safety reforms that will keep our young people alive.
  We should also note that the semiautomatic handgun that was 
reportedly used by the 6-year-old is a Saturday-night special, or junk 
gun, manufactured by one of the same companies that recently filed for 
bankruptcy protection to evade claims for damages caused by their 
product.
  Earlier this year, I offered an amendment to the Bankruptcy Reform 
Act to prevent gun manufacturers from tactically using bankruptcy laws 
to evade accountability. That amendment would have held those companies 
responsible if they produced unsafe products and distributed those 
products negligently. The amendment did not pass, and the gun industry 
continues to be the only industry explicitly exempted from Federal 
health and safety regulations. As a result, many of the guns 
manufactured today lack even the most basic kind of safety devices. We 
should repeal this privileged position of gun manufacturers and also 
require that all firearms are personalized or child-proofed so they 
cannot be fired by unauthorized users.
  I extend my thoughts and my prayers to Kayla's family, and I know I 
do on behalf of every Member of the Senate. No family should have to 
suffer what this family has suffered in the last 2 days and what they 
will continue to suffer as long as they live. We will work ever harder 
to reduce the toll of gun violence for all the children of America.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.

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