[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 21, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1475-S1480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE JUVENILE JUSTICE CONFERENCE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I will speak on a matter involving the 
juvenile justice conference--or, perhaps more accurately, I should say 
the lack of a conference on the juvenile justice bill. It is a matter 
that concerns me greatly because I was the floor leader on this side 
and the distinguished Senator from Utah was the floor leader on the 
other side when we had over a week of debate on the juvenile justice 
bill. We had a very solid debate. We then passed the bill with 73 votes 
in the Senate. It went to conference, and it was like going into the 
Bermuda Triangle; we haven't seen it since.
  Actually, this Congress has kept the country waiting too long for 
action on juvenile justice legislation and has kept the country waiting 
too long on sensible gun safety laws. We are fast approaching the 
first-year anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School in 
Littleton, CO. It has been 11 months since 14 students and a teacher 
lost their lives in that terrible tragedy on April 20, 1999. It has 
been 10 months since the Senate passed the Hatch-Leahy juvenile justice 
bill. As I said before, it was an overwhelming vote of 73-25.
  Our bipartisan bill includes modest--and I believe effective--gun 
provisions. It has been 9 months since the House of Representatives 
passed its own juvenile crime bill, which was on June 17, 1999. Then 
the leadership in the Congress delayed action on calling a conference 
all summer. It has been 8 months since the House and Senate juvenile 
justice conference met for the first and only time. The Republican 
majority in the Congress convened the conference on August 5, 1999. 
They did that less than 24 hours before the Congress adjourned for a 
month's vacation.
  Now, you don't have to be a cynic to recognize this for what it was. 
It was a transparent ploy to deflect criticism for delay, but also to 
make sure the conference could not do anything. They would not have 
enough time to prepare comprehensive juvenile justice legislation to 
send to the President before school began in September. But we did have 
time to do it before children went back to school in January. We didn't 
do that. Now I wonder if we will ever do it.
  The Senate and House Democrats have been ready for months to 
reconvene the juvenile justice conference. We have told the Republicans 
we would meet with them on a minute's notice. We want to work with 
Republicans to craft an effective juvenile justice conference report 
that includes reasonable gun safety provisions. But even though the 
Senate passed this legislation by a 3-to-1 majority, no conference; the 
Republican leadership has decided not to act.
  I think this is particularly shameful because the Congress has spent 
more time in recess than in session during the last meeting of this 
conference. Think about that. We have been out on vacation more time 
than we have actually been here working since we had that last 
conference. Let's take a couple days off one of these recesses and have 
a conference.
  Two weeks ago, the President invited House and Senate members of the 
conference to the White House, both Republicans and Democrats. He urged 
us to proceed to the conference and to have final enactment of 
legislation before the anniversary of the Columbine tragedy. 
Unfortunately, the Republican majority has rejected the President's 
plea for action. I think more than rejecting the President's plea for 
action, they have rejected the American people's plea.
  On April 22 of last year, barely 2 days after the killings at 
Columbine High School, I came to the Senate to urge action. I praised 
the Democratic leader, Senator Kennedy, and others for their thoughtful 
comments on these matters and for reaching out to the families of those 
who were killed that week. At that time, almost a year ago, I urged the 
Senate to rededicate itself to the work of assisting parents, teachers, 
the police, and others in stemming school violence. I suggested that S. 
9, the Safe Schools, Safe Streets, and Secure Borders Act of 1999, 
provided a good place to start.
  Responding to our efforts to turn the Senate's attention to the 
problems of school violence, on April 27 the Republican leader came to 
the floor and said if we withheld for 2 weeks, he could provide a 
legislative vehicle ``that we could take up, and the Senate would then 
have an opportunity for debate, have amendments, and have votes.''
  Senator Lott returned to the floor the following day to repeat his 
commitment to provide the Senate with the ``opportunity to debate and 
vote on those issues dealing with school violence.'' To Senator Lott's 
credit, he proceeded to S. 254, the juvenile justice bill, which was 
then pending on the Senate calendar, and he did that on May 11. We then 
had 2 weeks of real debate on it--one of the few we have had recently--
and then the Senate worked its way through this bill. The Hatch-Leahy 
juvenile justice legislation, which passed the Senate on May 20, passed 
with a strong bipartisan majority and 73 votes, with both Democrats and 
Republicans voting for it. No one should forget it was a Republican 
majority that decided to make the juvenile justice legislation the 
vehicle for the antiviolence amendments adopted by the Senate last 
May. Three-quarters of the Senate voted for our legislation.

  Following the action by the other body, I urged a prompt conference 
on the juvenile justice legislation. I took the unusual step of coming 
to the Senate to propound a unanimous consent request to move to 
conference on the legislation, which initially encountered Republican 
objections. But eventually this request provided a blueprint for moving 
the Senate to agreeing to conference on July 28 of last year.
  Unfortunately, that conference was convened for only a single 
afternoon--not with votes but of speeches. Democrats in both the House 
and Senate tried to offer motions about how to proceed to begin some of 
the discussion. But that was ruled out of order by the Republican 
majority.
  Then I spoke on the floor several times last year--on September 8, 
September 9, and October 21--urging the majority to reconvene the 
juvenile justice conference. I joined with fellow Democrats to request, 
both in writing and on the floor, the majority to let us

[[Page S1476]]

finish our work on the conference and then send a good bipartisan bill 
to the President. On October 20, 1999, all the House and the Senate 
Democratic conferees sent a letter to Senator Hatch and Congressman 
Hyde calling for an open meeting of the juvenile justice conference. 
The following year, on March 3, 2000, after yet another shocking school 
shooting involving 6-year-old classmates in Michigan, Representative 
Conyers and I wrote again to Senator Hatch and Congressman Hyde 
requesting an immediate meeting of the conference. The response has 
been resounding silence.
  Two weeks ago, I felt honored to be invited to a White House summit 
by the President of the United States. I joined Senator Hatch, 
Congressman Hyde, and Congressman Conyers in an Oval Office meeting 
with the President--a very substantive meeting. It went on well over an 
hour on what was a very busy day for the President. He urged the 
reconvening of the conference. He urged action by the Congress to send 
him a comprehensive bill before the 1-year anniversary of the Columbine 
tragedy. I met with the President again that evening. He said again: 
Please, will you just meet and send me a bill, especially before the 1-
year anniversary of Columbine. His entreaties, which I thought were 
well intentioned and were done seeking bipartisan support, were 
rebuffed. No conference has been scheduled.
  This is only the latest in a long series of delays that have plagued 
this legislation. We had to overcome technical obstacles and threatened 
filibusters just to begin the juvenile justice conference, and, 
unfortunately, I see no sign of abating the delays. We worked hard on 
the Hatch-Leahy juvenile justice bill, S. 254, and passed it by a vote 
of 73 to 25, but we cannot get a conference.
  What I worry about is the impression we give the country. We will 
stand here and debate symbolism. We will take long recesses. We will 
talk about everything but the thing that is on the minds of parents and 
schoolchildren.
  I am blessed with representing a State that I believe has the lowest 
crime rate in the Nation. We are a State where most of us don't even 
lock our doors. But it is interesting, when I go to schools in my State 
and talk to parents, to teachers, and to the children, they worry. Then 
I go into some of these other larger, urban States, and the concern is 
enormous.
  We have become a terribly violent nation notwithstanding that the 
vast majority of Americans are good and law-abiding people. I come from 
a State where a majority of the people own firearms. I own many myself. 
We don't have gun control laws in our State. We teach people to respect 
the weapons they have. But the people in Vermont have the same sense of 
revulsion that I do when they see some of these shootings and they see 
a Congress unwilling to even stand up to a powerful gun lobby.

  Can anybody forget what was probably one of the most terrible 
pictures I have seen, and terrible in what it said, at the Jewish day 
center in California where a man went in attacking and shooting? You 
remember the photograph of the heavily armed police officers leading 
the little children out across the street. Every one of us has children 
and has been with children. We have seen them in grade school with a 
teacher leading the group of children. All the children hold hands. 
They hold hands with the teacher. And what a happy, cheerful time: We 
are going to recess. We are going to class. We are going to learn. And 
they are protected and safe because they are with their teacher or 
their parents. But this time police officers led these children. They 
did not know what was going on with the heavily armed officers bringing 
them to safety. The police officers must have children of their own, or 
grandchildren of their own, and were thinking about what was going on.
  These are images that frighten people in this country. It is 
reasonable that they are frightened. We ought to respond. We are 
talking about a juvenile justice bill that has a whole lot of things 
way beyond any question of gun control. It has in it only modest gun 
control. It closes some loopholes in the law where you can't go to a 
flea market in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, and buy a gun 
without a real check on your background.
  We have an opportunity in the conference to cut through partisan 
differences to make a difference in the lives of our children and 
families. We need to meet in the conference to debate our motions, and 
vote them up or vote them down, but at least meet and vote. We are paid 
to vote yes or no. We are not paid to pass the buck. That is what is 
happening here.
  I don't know what my friends on the Republican side worry about. 
There are more of them than there are of us. They control the schedule. 
They have the votes. They can vote down anything they want. The 
procedural hurdles and the delays that plague this legislation are 
simply because of the opposition of the gun lobby to any new firearm 
safety laws.
  Unfortunately, the leadership is being held hostage by the extreme 
views of the NRA and other special interests. If they really wanted to 
pass effective juvenile justice reforms and protect our children 
against gun violence, they could do it tomorrow. The President would 
sign the Hatch-Leahy bill in a second if it reached his desk.
  Last year, the Y2K Act conference only took 2 weeks to complete, and 
a bill was sent to the President to provide legal protections for 
business--legal protections, as it turned out, that they didn't need. 
But when it comes to protecting our children where there is a real 
need, we can't act unless the NRA tells us we are allowed to act. That 
is wrong.
  I didn't come to the Senate to have any group or any special interest 
group on the right or the left tell me what I can do or not do. Only 
the voters of my State can make a decision that they don't like the way 
I vote. They can throw me out. But we should not allow this great body 
to be held hostage by special interest groups--no matter how many 
Members they have, no matter how much money they spend on television, 
or no matter how outrageous a claim they make.
  I have stood on this floor many times, but some of the proudest times 
I have had in public service were as a prosecutor in law enforcement. 
Let's listen to our Nation's law enforcement officers. They say pass a 
strong and effective juvenile justice bill. Ten national law 
enforcement organizations, representing thousands of law enforcement 
officers, have endorsed the Senate-passed gun safety amendment. They 
support loophole-free firearm laws.
  I remind Senators of the time Members of this Congress turned their 
back on police officers when the NRA said don't ban cop-killer bullets. 
Do you remember that? Law enforcement said: Wait a minute. We put our 
lives on the line for you. How about protecting us?
  Here are the organizations that have endorsed the gun-safety 
amendment and that support loophole-free firearm laws:
  The International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International 
Brotherhood of Police Officers, Police Executive Research Forum, Police 
Foundation, Major Cities Chiefs, Federal Law Enforcement Officers 
Association, National Sheriffs Association, National Association of 
School Resource Officers, National Organization of Black Law 
Enforcement Executives, Hispanic American Police Command Officers 
Association.
  These law enforcement officers need help in keeping guns out of the 
hands of people who should not have them. I am not talking about people 
who use guns for hunting and sport but about criminals and unsupervised 
children. These organizations want Congress to move.
  We recognize there is no single cause and no single legislative 
solution that will cure the ill of youth violence in our schools or in 
our streets. We have an obligation to do our part. It is time to act.
  This list represents organizations that endorse the Senate-passed gun 
safety amendments. These are not organizations that take a pie-in-the-
sky attitude. These organizations represent people who work in an 
increasingly violent society, putting their lives on the line to 
protect all Americans, just as the police officers in the Capitol put 
their lives on the line every day to protect everyone. Since I have 
been here two have died doing that.
  These organizations ask: Will you at least stand up for us as we 
stand up for the quarter billion Americans?

[[Page S1477]]

  I see the distinguished senior Senator from Rhode Island on the 
floor, Mr. Reed. I applaud Senator Jack Reed for his resolution for the 
juvenile justice conference to report a final bill by April 20 of this 
year, the 1-year anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.
  I am proud to cosponsor this resolution. I am proud to work with my 
good friend. I admire him for his initiative. I yield the floor to the 
distinguished senior Senator from Rhode Island.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island is recognized.
  Mr. REED. I commend the Senator from Vermont for his eloquence and 
his passionate support of this vital legislation. It is vital to the 
children and to the families of this country.
  As the Senator pointed out, it has been 11 months since the tragic 
incident at Columbine High School. Last April 20, we witnessed with 
horror and revulsion an attack on children who were just going to 
school. The entire country stood up as one and said: We have to do 
something. We have to stop this senseless gun violence. We have to 
create a country in which easy access to firearms and the resulting 
violence is something of the past.
  However, it has not stopped. The violence continues every day with 
tragic consequences throughout this country--in Seattle, WA; in 
Atlanta, GA; in Los Angeles, CA; in Honolulu, HI; in Ft. Worth, TX; in 
Sidney, OH; in Wilkinsburg PA; in Mount Morris township in Michigan; 
and thousands of other places where, regrettably and tragically, gun 
violence is so common in this country that it doesn't make the front 
page because the incidents aren't that graphic or that violent.
  The first anniversary of the tragedy at Columbine High School is just 
around the corner, April 20. Still, the conference committee on 
juvenile justice has not yet discharged their duty and sent back a bill 
that contains common, safe, gun safety measures that were passed by 
this Senate. In fact, as the Senator from Vermont pointed out, the 
committee has met only once, last August. For 8 months we have waited. 
We have waited; the American people have waited. We have waited for 
commonsense protections that have been frustrated and thwarted by the 
Republican leadership at the behest of the NRA. They have ignored the 
will of the American people and the overwhelming desire of the American 
people to protect the safety of their children and the safety of their 
communities.

  I believe the American people have waited long enough. Today, along 
with my colleagues, Senator Boxer of California, Senator Leahy, and 
others, I will introduce a sense-of-the-Senate resolution calling for 
the juvenile justice conferees to complete and submit the conference 
report before April 20, the first anniversary of the Columbine 
shooting, and to include in this conference report the amendments 
passed by this Senate seeking to limit access to firearms by juveniles, 
by convicted felons, and by other persons.
  Will the passage of this legislation stop gun crime in this country? 
No, it won't. But it will represent a step forward to impose reasonable 
controls on the easy access to firearms for those who should not have 
them: Children, criminals, those whose mental capacity is diminished 
enough so they resort to violence with these weapons.
  Within the core of this juvenile justice legislation are simple, 
commonsense approaches to ensure we have a safer society: Closing the 
gun show loophole, requiring safety locks to be sold with handguns, 
banning the importation of large capacity ammunition clips, and 
outlawing juvenile possession of assault weapons.
  We will bring common sense to our gun laws with these measures and, 
hopefully, reduce the avalanche of violence that is engulfing so many 
in this society.
  In my home State of Rhode Island, in the city of Providence alone, 26 
people were murdered in 1999. That is up from 15 in 1998. Firearms were 
used in the vast majority of the killings in both years: 19 out of the 
26 people who were killed last year were killed with firearms, 11 of 
the 15 the year before. And Providence, my capital, is a small city of 
roughly around 200,000 people.
  Last year, when we were talking about Columbine High School, if any 
Member came to this floor and said: I predict a 6-year-old child will 
walk into first grade and kill another 6-year-old child with a handgun, 
we would have been lambasted as extremists, hysterical, provocateurs, 
irresponsible, reckless. Guess what. It happened. Incidents such as 
that happen each and every day.
  Just a few weeks ago in Providence, RI, two young boys were rough-
housing with each other--a 17-year-old and a 13-year-old friend--doing 
what boys have been doing for a long, long time. They were razzing each 
year, wrestling with each other, seeing who was the most tough. They 
went on and on and on. One of them got frustrated. Now, when I was 
younger, that frustration might have led to a punch in the nose, a 
bloody nose, and some hard feelings, but that was all. Somebody in the 
crowd had a gun and this young boy recklessly and without thought 
grabbed that gun just to show how tough he was, pointed the gun at the 
13-year-old, pulled the trigger, thinking nothing would happen, and 
shot that 13-year-old in the head. That shooter, that young man--not a 
criminal, just a kid rough-housing around in the neighborhood--was so 
overcome with remorse that he fled to an adjacent backyard and shot 
himself in the head.
  That is gun violence in America today. That is the cost of easy 
access to firearms. These aren't criminals. These were kids doing 
something stupid. But because they had guns, it resulted in death and 
destruction.
  We are not kids here. We are supposed to be adults. We are supposed 
to be responsible. We are supposed to represent the best values and 
ideals of this country. That means we must stand up and vote on 
measures such as this juvenile justice bill.
  I ask on behalf of the 12 children killed each day by gun violence 
that we bring this conference bill back to this floor with those 
reasonable gun control measures included. Someone has to speak for 
them. Someone must speak for them. Someone must demand these measures 
come before the Senate.
  We cannot continue to listen to the siren song of the NRA in this 
Chamber. We cannot be hypnotized by all the spin and the hype and all 
the misinformation and misdirection. We have to respond to the reality 
of kids easily getting handguns and unwittingly and, tragically, 
killing each other.
  We have a country in which the homicide rate by handguns far 
surpasses that of any other country in the world. In Japan, in 1996, 
there were 15 people killed with handguns, in a country of 126 million 
people. That is 1 person in every 8.4 million. The ratio in the United 
States? One person out of every 27,000. What is the difference? 
Cultural? Genetic? Demographic? They have gun laws that make it 
difficult for anyone and everyone, willy-nilly, to own handguns.
  It is the same story the world over. Canada, perhaps the country 
closest to us in culture, in demographics and ethnicity, is also a 
country that had a great frontier, a country that had the same kind of 
challenges we had opening up their great west. It is a country of 
outdoors men and women; it is a country, in many respects, with the 
same cultural values we have. Yet in that country, in 1996, 106 people 
were killed out of a population of 30 million. That is 1 person in 
every 284,000--many, many, many times fewer people killed by gun 
violence in a country so similar to ours. The difference? Once again, 
they have sensible laws that govern access to handguns.
  We could go on and on. But as long as a criminal can walk into a gun 
show and buy a gun without a background check and walk out before any 
type of check can be done, as long as kids can get access to firearms 
without safety locks on them so they can use them, as we have seen 
happen too often, as long as it is harder for a kid to open a bottle of 
aspirin than it is to shoot a gun, because we have childproof tops on 
aspirin containers, we are going to have these problems.
  It is our responsibility to act. It is our responsibility to stand 
up. We have not done that. Time is drawing close to April 20, 1 year 
after Columbine. I cannot think of a better way, not only to 
memorialize the victims of that shooting but to give meaning to that 
senseless tragedy, than for this body and the House to send to the 
President a gun control measure that will provide the sensible, 
reasonable controls that are so critical.

[[Page S1478]]

  I see the Senator from California. There is no one in this body who 
is not only sensitive but more forcefully engaged in this effort than 
my friend and colleague, Senator Boxer, someone who I am proud to say 
will cosponsor this resolution, someone I am proud to say will continue 
her valiant efforts to lead the way for sensible gun control in this 
country.
  I yield the floor.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, how much time remains in the morning 
business period?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Enzi). Thirty minutes remains under the 
control of Senator Durbin.
  Mrs. BOXER. I will take 60 seconds at this time, and then I will 
yield to Senator Daschle, who will speak on his leader time. I am so 
proud he has come over to the floor.
  I wish to say in this minute, before my friend from Rhode Island 
leaves, what an amazing addition he is to this Senate. I say that from 
the bottom of my heart. I served with him in the House and he was a 
great House Member. I predict he has an unbelievable future in the 
Senate. Why do I say that? Because he has courage, because he has 
conviction. He is not afraid to take the floor on issues that are 
difficult; to take on, perhaps, some of the special interests that, 
believe me, do not take kindly when you stand up and speak from your 
heart about issues that impact on their bottom line. In this case, it 
is the bottom line of groups out there that want us to take no action 
against gun violence.
  We have a plan. We have a great plan that passed the Senate. It is 
endorsed by so many law enforcement groups and the vast majority of the 
American people. I can think of no more appropriate speaker than our 
Democratic leader to tie the pieces together and to talk about why the 
time is ripe.
  I did offer a similar resolution to that of Senator Reed. I am proud 
to cosponsor his. It got 49 votes--49-49. We didn't know that or Vice 
President Gore would have broken the tie. Next time we will be ready.
  I yield the floor, and I will reclaim it when my leader is finished.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I will use my leader time and allocate 
that time to my comments on the floor this morning.
  Let me begin by acknowledging, as well, the extraordinary leadership, 
not only of Senator Reed, but of Senator Boxer. Everything Senator 
Boxer has said about Senator Reed is a view that I think is shared by 
Republicans and Democrats alike. He has come to the Senate and in a 
very short period of time established himself as an authority on a 
number of key issues, including education and defense matters, as well 
as now, on neighborhood safety. I applaud him again for taking the 
leadership, as he has.
  Senator Boxer, on this, as well as on so many other issues, comes to 
the floor, grinds it out, and speaks as passionately and as eloquently 
as anybody in this Chamber. It is an extraordinary privilege to work 
with her as well.
  I have heard the proposal made by the Senator from Rhode Island that 
we set for ourselves a date by which we must act with respect to 
juvenile safety, and that we choose a date that we all ought to 
remember--April 20th. Last year, that date, the date of the Columbine 
tragedy, triggered our commitment to better safety and prompted the 
Senate to act. We left with an expectation that, as a result of that 
action in the Senate, things were going to happen, that we could send a 
message of hope to the people of Colorado and to the people of this 
Nation that we will not tolerate the violence that exists in this 
country. We sent the message that we will respond to tragedy with 
careful, commonsense approaches that will make schools and 
neighborhoods safer, such as balanced gun legislation. That is what we 
said and that is how we voted. We are on record as having supported 
such commonsense legislation.
  In poll after poll, it is remarkable the degree to which the American 
people support the actions taken by the Senate and the amendments 
offered by our Democratic colleagues. It is overwhelming.
  There has been a sea change, an attitudinal progression on this issue 
in the country--a sea change. I represent a Western State where, after 
you are born, on your first or second birthday, virtually, you get a 
shotgun--because that is what we do. I am proud I have shotguns. I love 
to go hunting. I love to walk and take in nature in all of its splendor 
in the fall. That is part of the culture of the West. It is a part of 
the culture of growing up in South Dakota of which I am very proud and 
I love. I will defend it, and I will work to ensure that my children 
and grandchildren and great grandchildren have these same experiences.
  But there is a difference. That difference is becoming even more 
extraordinarily evident as we read about experiences such as we read 
this morning in the Washington Post, an agonizing description of what 
kind of setting created this despicable act in Michigan. A young boy, 6 
years old, takes a gun, walks into a school full of children, his 
school, picks out a girl, says, ``I don't like you,'' and shoots her to 
death. That story generated a front page article and a spread, inside 
the paper, of two full pages--and it should have. Why? Because this 
incident illustrates the magnitude of the torturous existence that now 
is becoming more and more prevalent all across this country in schools 
and in neighborhoods.
  But you could put that kind of story on the front page of the 
Washington Post every single day. It happened in Michigan, but it 
happened yesterday somewhere else. It happened in Rhode Island shortly 
after that. It happens every day. Those of us who appreciate the 
culture of a good pheasant hunt recognize there is a huge difference 
between that and the disastrous consequences of this proliferation of 
guns that now has become a real threat to the safety and well-being of 
children in virtually every school in America today.
  All the Senator from Rhode Island is suggesting is that at long last 
we say: Look, we've talked enough. Let's act. We took the first step 
last May. We expected that we would take additional steps. We have not. 
We have talked. We have positioned. We have wrung our hands in agony as 
one shooting after another has been pasted on the pages of every single 
newspaper in the country.
  The litany of additional Columbines has continued all across the 
country. These new shootings may not have claimed as many lives. But 
they are tragedies nonetheless. They ought to trigger action.
  Let us act. Let us meet in conference and work through our 
differences so that we can finally say: We are not only going to talk 
about this. We are going to do something about it.
  We recognize that passing the modest gun safety measures in the 
Juvenile Justice report will not completely solve the problem of gun 
violence. There may be other things that can be done. I am very 
grateful to HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, and others in the 
administration, for having worked out a remarkable and historic new 
agreement with Smith & Wesson.
  What a statement: for Smith & Wesson to acknowledge that guns are 
inherently dangerous, and that they are going to do something about it. 
Regardless of what their motivation may be, the fact is, they are going 
to do something about it. In making this commitment, they are setting a 
precedent. I would love to see every gun manufacturer follow Smith & 
Wesson's lead. It is common sense.
  I have long admired President Ford, for many reasons. My admiration 
for him increased again this past week when he spoke about the need for 
this Congress to respond in a commonsense way to the gun violence that 
is claiming too many of our children.
  The American people are looking to us. They want to know that we hear 
them. They want us to give them some hope that we can solve the real 
problems facing families and communities--not only in Columbine, but in 
South Dakota, Michigan, Rhode Island, California, and all across 
America. The American people want to know that our democratic process 
works.
  In these days before the first anniversary of the Columbine tragedy, 
we ought to take President Ford's wise counsel to heart. For the sake 
of our children, we need to come together and pass common-sense gun 
safety laws.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from 
California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I thank my Democratic leader for his 
comments and his continual leadership on

[[Page S1479]]

the gun issues that impact the people of our Nation.
  I want to set into the Record a series of facts, a series of 
statistics, a series of numbers. I know sometimes when you lay down a 
series of numbers such as this, people's eyes glaze over and they lose 
track of what you are talking about.
  I urge everyone listening to this to think not about the numbers so 
much as the people behind the numbers.
  In the year 1997, which is the last year for which we have 
statistics, 32,436 people died from gunshots in America--more than 
32,000 people. I want everyone to think about what it would mean to you 
if any of these 32,000 people were from one of your families, what it 
would mean to you if it was your dad, if it was your mom, if it was 
your child, if it was your grandma, if it was your grandpa.
  Twelve children die every single day from gunfire. Actually, if you 
average it out, it is between 12 and 13 children under the age of 18--
each and every day.
  Our children are dying. And what are we doing? We are dithering 
around doing nothing about it.
  I understand that this week we are going to take up a flag 
desecration amendment. There are those who believe we need to protect 
the flag by authoring an amendment changing the Bill of Rights for the 
first time in our history to specifically spell out an antidesecration 
flag amendment. I will be supporting a statute, a bill, to protect the 
flag. I do not think we need to go to such a step as amending the Bill 
of Rights. But be that as it may, flag desecration is an issue.
  In over 200 years, there has been an average of one flag desecration 
a year, and we are acting again. Mr. President, 32,436 people died in 
1997--in 1 year--and we are doing nothing. Why can't we protect the 
flag and take care of protecting the people? Why can't we protect the 
desecration of the flag by a statute that is easy to do and then bring 
up the juvenile justice bill and protect the thousands of people who 
are dying each and every year? What about the desecration of the 
children, of the families?
  In the 11 years of the Vietnam war--one of the most tragic periods in 
our history--58,168 fine, wonderful, glorious Americans died in combat. 
There is a number, a number that is enshrined on the wall on that 
beautiful memorial down here that we all go to often--and we should go 
to often--to pay our respects. It was a war that destroyed so many 
families; and so many veterans who came back then committed suicide 
because of that war. It was a time in our history when our country came 
to its knees; 58,168 Americans died in Vietnam over an 11-year period. 
Let me tell you how many Americans have died over an 11-year period 
from gunshots not related to any war: 395,441 Americans.
  Mr. President, 58,168 Americans died in the Vietnam war; 395,441 
Americans died from gunshots in an 11-year period. What are we doing 
about it? Nothing. That is the equivalent of almost seven Vietnam wars 
over an 11-year period. What are we doing about it? Nothing.
  We hear the NRA President say: We should do nothing. His answer is 
give more guns to people.
  For every American who dies from gunfire, another three are injured.
  Over that 11-year period, we have almost a million people injured 
from gunfire. They could be paralyzed. These could be very serious 
injuries, and sometimes they are. Fifty people killed or injured in 
school shootings in America in the last year. Thirty-one percent of 
children age 12 to 17 know of someone their age who is carrying a gun--
gun-packing children. We are to blame. They are not to blame. We are 
the grown-ups. We set the rules. This is a society of law and order. 
What are we doing about it in the Senate? Nothing.
  Fifty percent of children age 9 to 17 are worried about dying young. 
What kind of America do we have now? When I was growing up, I didn't 
think I was going to die young. I thought I was going to go to school, 
get an education, have a family, work, have a life of fulfillment. I 
never thought for one minute that that could all be ended by a gunshot 
from a friend, a classmate on the street, in a McDonald's, in a drive-
by shooting, road rage.
  We had better face our problems. We have the greatest country in the 
world, but we have problems. We need to face them. We are not here to 
ignore problems. We are not here to say everything is great. We need to 
act on our problems. This is a problem.
  Listen to the law enforcement groups that back us on this when we say 
bring out the juvenile justice bill.
  The juvenile justice bill; that is the one bright spot. We passed it 
in a bipartisan fashion about a month after Columbine, with Al Gore 
casting a tie-breaking vote on one of the most important amendments. 
This is what we passed.
  We closed the gun show loophole--Senator Lautenberg's amendment--that 
allowed criminals to walk into a gun show and simply get it. He could 
be crazy. He could be a felon. He could be intending to kill people on 
the street, to kill people in a school, to harm himself. He could walk 
into a gun show without having a background check. But if he went into 
a gun store, he would have to have a background check. All we did was 
close that loophole. What is the Senate doing about it now? Nothing. It 
is languishing in the committee.
  We banned the importation of high-capacity clips which are used in 
semiautomatic assault weapons. That was Senator Feinstein's amendment, 
a very important amendment.
  We prohibit the domestic manufacture of those clips, but the 
importation continues. These clips are coming in. We simply say: End 
that importation. We passed that.
  We passed the Kohl amendment requiring that child safety locks be 
sold with every handgun.
  We passed the Boxer amendment which required the Federal Trade 
Commission and the Attorney General to study the extent to which the 
gun industry markets its products to juveniles. These companies are 
manufacturing guns that resemble toys, that are sold to youngsters and 
get them interested.
  We made it illegal with the Ashcroft amendment to sell or give a 
semiautomatic assault weapon to anyone under the age of 18.
  Five amendments, we passed them in a bipartisan way. They went off to 
conference, and they have been languishing for now 9 or 10 months. It 
is the same with Senator Reed's amendment.
  It is time to stop the dithering. It is time to stop bowing to the 
National Rifle Association and bowing to the gun lobby. It is time to 
stand up and be courageous, bring those amendments forward, protect our 
children, and stop the carnage that is happening in our country.

  Who supports these five sensible gun control amendments? Senator 
Leahy, in his wonderful opening remarks today, put them forward: The 
International Association of Chiefs of Police, International 
Brotherhood of Police Officers, Hispanic American Police Command 
Officers Association, Police Executive Research Forum, Police 
Foundation, Major Cities Chiefs, Federal Law Enforcement Officers 
Association, the National Sheriffs Association, the National 
Association of School Resource Officers, the National Organization of 
Black Law Enforcement Executives.
  We cannot have a more diverse group of law enforcement.
  We have five important, sensible gun control laws that passed the 
Senate, that went into a conference committee.
  If one reads how a bill becomes law, they know how it is done: A bill 
has to pass the House; a bill has to pass the Senate. The juvenile 
justice bills passed both bodies. You then go to the conference 
committee. Both sides sit across from each other and talk about what 
belongs in the bill. They bring the bill forward, and we vote up or 
down. This bill has languished for 10 months.
  Now, what is some good news? Senator Daschle alluded to the Smith & 
Wesson agreement. Smith & Wesson is the largest manufacturer, if not 
one of the largest, of handguns. They have made an agreement as part of 
a lawsuit because gun manufacturers are now being sued for these 
deaths. They have agreed that all their handguns and pistols will now 
be shipped with child safety devices. Within 2 years, the handguns will 
be manufactured with internal locks. If a child picks up a gun and they 
don't know the combination, they will not be able to turn and hurt 
anyone--sensible.

[[Page S1480]]

  Within 1 year, all pistols will be designed so they can't be readily 
operated by a child under the age of 6. Handguns must pass a 
performance test. That gets to a bill I have about banning junk guns. 
They will drop these guns down. They will see if they go off. A lot of 
these handguns are so cheaply made, they fire when you don't want them 
to, and when you need them to, they jam up. They are not good products. 
They are junk guns. Smith & Wesson is going to put forward a test.
  Every handgun will be designed with a second hidden serial number so 
they can be traced in a crime--another very important point. The 
company will sell only to authorized distributors and authorized 
dealers who adhere to a strict code of conduct. That means they will 
perform the background check. They will make sure the person coming in 
is not inebriated, is not high on drugs, doesn't have a criminal 
record, isn't under age. They will not sell any gun at any gun show 
unless every seller at the gun show conducts a background check. They 
will not sell their guns until that background check is completed, and 
they say it may well take 3 days.
  They will not sell any high-capacity magazines or semiautomatic 
assault weapons. They will not sell products to anyone who has not 
taken a certified firearms safety course. And Smith & Wesson dealers 
will only allow purchasers to take one gun with them at a time.
  They will have to wait a couple of weeks before they get their other 
gun. The company will devote 2 percent of its revenues to development 
of smart guns and within 3 years the smart gun technology, which allows 
only the authorized person to shoot it, will be in place. All new 
models will not be able to accept magazines with a capacity of over 10 
rounds. There will be an oversight commission to enforce this, which 
will include representatives from the city and State governments, and 
one from the gun industry.
  So what I have laid out in this presentation, first of all, is the 
facts on violence in America--irrefutable facts. I give these facts out 
and my colleagues come up and say: Could this be true? Could it be true 
that in 11 years more than 300,000 Americans have been killed by gun 
violence? Could it be true that every day 12 or 13 children are killed?
  They can't believe it. And we send the facts to the Centers for 
Disease Control. We send them to the people who keep these terrible 
statistics, and they come back to me and say: Senator, you are right. 
We doubted you. We are sorry. We can't believe this is happening in 
America today. But it is.
  So we have laid out the data, the facts on gun violence in America. 
We have laid out the five gun provisions languishing in the conference. 
Commonsense gun control that passed this Senate in a bipartisan way is 
suddenly being smothered over there in the conference committee, and we 
can't get it to the floor of the Senate and the House.
  Day after day we read about 6-year-olds shooting 6-year-olds, 10-
year-olds shooting 10-year-olds, 12-year-olds shooting 12-year-olds.
  We don't deserve to be here if we don't do this. We don't deserve to 
be here, let alone be reelected, if we don't do this. The Vietnam war 
brought the country to its knees. We lost 58,000 people-plus in that 
war. It was a most tragic period of time. I remember that time. But we 
now have 300,000 people-plus dying from guns in an 11-year period 
compared to 58,000, and we sit here dithering around doing nothing 
while law enforcement tells us to please act. ``We are outgunned,'' 
they tell us. ``We are losing people. We are losing this war.'' We have 
a war in our streets. I laid out the organizations that are backing 
these five sensible amendments.
  Finally, I laid out the good news of the Smith & Wesson agreement. I 
call on every single gun company that wants to stay in business to go 
ahead and duplicate what Smith & Wesson has done. I thank them for 
acting. They are taking the heat for acting. I think Senator Daschle is 
right. Maybe they acted only because they had a lawsuit. Maybe they 
acted only because they thought they would go bankrupt if they didn't 
act and people would continue to sue them. The fact is, they acted; 
they acted on each and every point we have made on this Senate floor.
  So, yes, we are going to see flag desecration brought up. We know 
over the last 200 years there has been one flag desecration a year on 
average, while every day 12 children are killed by guns; and over the 
past 11 years 300,000-plus Americans have been killed, and we do 
nothing. The juvenile justice bill is languishing--languishing--in the 
committee. I call on the Senators who are in charge of that 
conference--and they are my friends--to break the logjam and bring this 
legislation to the Senate floor. It passed with a bipartisan vote. 
Overwhelmingly, people want us to do it.
  The Smith & Wesson agreement proves the point that the time is ripe 
for these measures. I say if we do it, we will be proud; we will have 
done something to protect our children, protect our people, protect our 
communities, and turn around a blight on our country at a time of great 
prosperity and great hope.
  I see the Senator who has done such an amazing job in the 
Presidential race. I welcome him back. I thought the issues he raised 
were vital. I am glad to see him back, and as a result of his 
appearance on this floor, I am happy to yield at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from California for 
her kind remarks. I appreciate, obviously, the time that I was able to 
spend in her great State. I hope she appreciates the economic input 
that our campaign made, and I hope I can get some rebate from the 
numerous campaign commercials we purchased in her State. I thank her 
for the hospitality shown to me by all of the citizens of the State of 
California.

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