[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 26 (Thursday, March 9, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1376-S1378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE NEED TO CLOSE THE GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I want to discuss a subject that is 
not terribly different than the remarks made by the distinguished 
Senator from Virginia just now. He talks about our responsibilities, 
what we have to do to protect our citizens. He talked about it in a 
slightly different way than I am going to discuss it now.
  But we are at a point in time, Mr. President, when there are 43 days 
on the calendar left until the 1-year anniversary of the shootings at 
Columbine High School in Colorado. On April 20, 2000, it will be 1 year 
since the country listened, in shock, to the news that two high school 
students, Eric Harris and

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Dylan Klebold, had stormed into Columbine and systematically shot and 
killed 12 classmates and a teacher.
  When we talk about 43 days to go, those are calendar days. If we 
talked about the number of days left for us to enact legislation, there 
are somewhere around 23 days left.
  In addition to those 12 classmates and a teacher killed, 23 other 
students and teachers were wounded in the assault.
  It pains me--and I am sure it is true for all Americans--when I think 
back to the picture of that carnage: Young people running in a high 
school, fearful that their lives may be taken away, many weeping with 
terror as they fled. Who could ever forget the picture of that young 
man hanging out of a window to try to protect himself?
  But even in some ways more shocking is to see how quickly this 
Congress can dismiss those images. The American people must be 
wondering: What we have been doing since that tragic day almost a year 
ago? What have we done to reassure parents across the country that we 
are working to prevent it from happening again? We have shown no 
evidence of that. As a matter of fact, the evidence is quite to the 
contrary. The evidence says: Congress had a chance to do it, but we 
chose not to. We have not done anything, and it is a disgrace. I heard 
yesterday that there was a shooting. I have recounted several incidents 
in the past year when I have heard news of a shooting here and news of 
a shooting there. My first question is, Is it a school? Is it a 
schoolyard that has become another killing field? Yesterday's shooting 
was not in a schoolyard. But when that 6-year-old child was killed by 
another 6-year-old child, it was in a schoolyard. It was an adult's 
fault more than that child's fault--the 6-year-old didn't know any 
better--the man whose gun was lying casually around when this boy 
picked it up and took it to kill his classmate. We have not dealt with 
that. We have not dealt with the problem of adult responsibility, 
keeping guns out of the hands of children. There is no doubt in my mind 
that the responsibility should fall directly on the adult and have them 
pay, and pay dearly, for their role in the crime.

  On Tuesday, the President tried to help. He met with leaders of the 
conference committee, where gun safety measures are stalled, to try to 
move this issue to the front burner. I salute his efforts. He 
understands the need for action. He recalls routinely the vote we took 
in this Chamber to pass my gun show loophole amendment. It did pass, 
51-50, with the help of Vice President Gore, who voted to break the 
tie.
  But nothing happened. The legislation passed the Senate. But the 
House passed a juvenile justice bill without gun safety measures. While 
the President tried to make positive progress, the NRA, the National 
Rifle Association--I name them clearly--and the gun lobby continued to 
obstruct every single effort to pass commonsense gun safety measures. 
They do it by spreading false information about what these measures are 
designed to do. They distort the record to achieve their goal: no gun 
safety laws. That is what they want.
  They said my amendment was intended to shut down gun shows. It was a 
lie. It was an untruth. They also misquoted my remarks at a press 
conference. But when the video of my speech is reviewed, you see what I 
said. I said, ``Close the gun show loophole.'' These folks don't 
respect the truth.
  My amendment would simply shut out criminals who use gun shows as 
convenience stores to buy the firearms they will use to rob and commit 
violent crimes, to kill people. That includes our police officers, law 
enforcement people.
  The American people support criminal background checks on all gun 
sales at gun shows. It has to be hard for people across the country to 
understand that you have to get a permit, you have to get a bill of 
sale, to buy a car, in many cases, to buy an appliance. Why in the 
world would we not insist that people who are buying a gun identify 
themselves in some way?
  The support for identification is overwhelming. We saw it in an ABC 
news poll. Ninety percent of the people said they want to close the gun 
show loophole, the loophole that says unlicensed dealers, private 
dealers, can go ahead and sell guns to anybody who has the money. No 
need to ask the question: What are you going to do with it? They ask if 
you are 18. If you say you are 18, that takes care of it; then they 
just sell them.
  If you are a member of the Ten Most Wanted list, the most wanted 
criminals in the country, you can step up there and buy a gun. No one 
will ask you a question.
  What about the gun owners the NRA claims to represent? In a poll that 
was conducted by the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns 
Hopkins University, two-thirds--66 percent--of gun owners said they 
favor background checks at gun show sales. Last year, the FBI issued a 
report which noted that between November 30, 1998, and June 15, 1999--
less than a year, 6 months--the FBI failed to block about 1,700 gun 
sales to prohibited purchasers--in other words, people unfit, unable to 
meet basic standards--because it didn't have enough time to complete 
the background check. The FBI had to allow the gun sales to go through.
  Those transactions were completed because the FBI didn't have enough 
time to complete the background check. So consequently, they had to 
issue gun retrieval notices and law enforcement had to try to track 
down the criminals who got the guns.

  So we must not permit weakening of our criminal background check 
system. We should strengthen it, a system that has stopped more than 
470,000 guns from being purchased in 6 years. Half a million people, 
almost, who wanted to buy guns, who were unfit to buy those guns--
criminals, fugitives, other prohibited purchasers--tried to buy a gun 
and were stopped by Federal law from doing so. I think that is a good 
thing for people in our country to hear. It includes 33,000 spousal 
abusers who were denied a gun because of a domestic violence gun ban I 
wrote only 4 years ago.
  The NRA makes another outrageous claim, that my gun show loophole 
closing bill won't make any difference; in other words, if there are 
guns out there bought by unknown people, that it doesn't matter. They 
say my legislation won't make it tougher for people to buy a gun to 
commit a crime. That is also nonsense.
  But don't take my word for it. Look at what Robyn Anderson told the 
Colorado State Legislature recently. She is the woman who went with 
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to the Tanner gun show in Adams County, 
CO. She said:

       Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had gone to the Tanner gun 
     show on Saturday and they took me back with them on Sunday. . 
     . . While we were walking around, Eric and Dylan kept asking 
     sellers if they were private or licensed. They wanted to buy 
     their guns from someone who was private--and not licensed--
     because there would be no paperwork or background check.

  They needed Anderson's help because she was 18 and they were too 
young to buy guns. So Robyn Anderson bought 3 guns for them at the gun 
show, 2 shotguns and a rifle--3 guns that Harris and Klebold would use 
to murder 13 young people at Columbine High School.
  Here is what she said. You read it and you will understand it, I 
hope. She said:

       It was too easy. I wish it had been more difficult. I 
     wouldn't have helped them buy the guns if I had faced a 
     background check.

  How much clearer could it be? Closing the gun show loophole will make 
a difference. I plead with all of my colleagues in this Chamber--I 
don't understand how we can ignore the cries of our people--I plead 
with them: Follow your conscience. Let's do the right thing. Whom are 
we hurting if we say you have to identify yourself when you buy a 
weapon? We are not hurting anybody.
  By not demanding it, we permit this kind of thing to take place, 
unidentified gun buyers. That ought to shock everybody in America. 
Let's do what the people of this country expect us to do. Ten months 
ago, the Senate passed my amendment to close the gun show loophole. Now 
that bill is being held hostage in a conference committee.
  For those who are not aware of what it is, a conference committee is 
a committee of the House and a committee of the Senate. They join 
together--it is called a conference committee--to iron out differences 
in legislation they want to see passed in both Houses.
  Nothing has happened. The committee has met only one time, last year. 
They have not debated the issues.

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We are asking: Please, let that legislation go free. Don't let the gun 
lobby prevail over the families across this country who want to stop 
the gun violence.
  Don't let the gun lobby rule what takes place in this Senate or in 
the House of Representatives. We have to do it now, before April 20, 
before the anniversary of that terrible day at Columbine High School. 
No one will forget it. No one who is alive and old enough to understand 
what took place will forget it. One year is time enough to act. April 
20.
  People across this country are asking: What has Congress done? What 
will they do? If one thinks they will be satisfied to hear that we have 
done nothing at all, I urge them to think again. And I urge people 
within the range of my voice to listen to what some are saying--that 
Congress will do nothing about it, even though children die across this 
country and adults die across this country. Over 33,000 a year die from 
gunshot wounds. We wound 134,000. In Vietnam, we lost 58,000 over the 
whole 10-year period that war was fought. But we lose 33,000 Americans 
a year--young, old, black, white, Christian, Jewish, it doesn't matter.
  So I plead with my colleagues, give our people a safer country. They 
are entitled to that. If we have an enemy outside our borders, we are 
prepared to fight that enemy. We have service personnel and airplanes 
with the latest equipment. We try to provide our law enforcement 
people--the police departments, FBI, drug enforcement agents, and 
border patrol people--with the weapons to fight crime. But each year, 
33,000 people die from gunshots in this country. We ought not to permit 
that. I plead with my colleagues to help our people. Let's try to move 
forward with gun safety legislation as quickly as we can when we return 
the week after next.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. GRAMS. I ask unanimous consent to speak in morning business up to 
10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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