[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 38 (Thursday, March 30, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1978-S1980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     GRAND RAPIDS STATE OF THE CITY

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, Americans are fed up with the 
intolerable levels of gun violence in this country. This violence has 
seeped into our homes, schools, churches and community centers.
  In cities and counties across the nation, people are calling for 
common-sense gun legislation. Mayor John Logie, of Grand Rapids, 
Michigan, dedicated his State of the City speech to the issue of gun 
violence and its traumatic effect on children. He asks us to take a new 
and different approach to the problem, an approach focused on 
protecting our children. Mayor Logie suggests that there is ``no 
greater cause behind which we can all join, than saving the lives of 
our young people.'' Major Logie is right: gun violence can be reduced. 
I hope this Congress can endorse his message and work to protect our 
children from senseless firearm injury and death.
  I ask that the text of Mayor Logie's speech be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

                           State of the City

       We are at the start of a new millennium, or at least the 
     start of a new year, and thanks to the support of a majority 
     of the voters in each of the 80 of the City's 100 precincts, 
     for me the start of a new 4-year term in office, until 
     December 31, 2003. Even though that sounds like a long time 
     off, if it is anything like the last 8 years, it will 
     disappear all too quickly.
       Last year in this speech I was able to talk about the 
     Common Good, about our accomplishments, and about the 
     positive aspects of our future. Sometimes, however, a series 
     of events occur, which make me feel that living in a 
     community like this one, if it can be aroused and focused, it 
     could provide leadership to this region, this State, perhaps 
     even the country. So here is the topic I want to talk about 
     today. On December 7th in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, a 13-year-
     old seventh grader named Seth Trickey emptied a 9-millimeter 
     semi-automatic pistol, resulting in four of his classmates 
     being shot. Surrounded by 14 spent cartridges, he kept trying 
     to pull the trigger on the empty handgun until the police 
     arrived.
       In Springfield, Oregon, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel gave a 
     report in science class about how to make a bomb. Then in 
     literature class he read from his journal about thinking 
     about killings. No one did anything until he later shot and 
     killed his parents and two classmates.
       At Columbine High School, Eric Harris and Dylon Klebold, 
     used a saw-off shotgun, a rifle, and a semi-automatic pistol, 
     to slaughter 13 students and teachers. One of their 
     classmates, Patrick Ireland, recently featured in Life 
     magazine's Year in Pictures, was shot twice in the head and 
     once in the foot. One bullet passed through the left 
     hemisphere of his brain, which controls language, complex 
     thinking, and the right side of the body, causing massive 
     damage. It's still in his brain--too risky to remove, and 
     he's considered lucky, because he's alive. Recently a home-
     made videotape was released in which Eric and Dylon talked 
     about how they hoped one day Hollywood directors would fight 
     for the right to tell their story, but they said they 
     couldn't decide whether Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino 
     should direct the film. Their callousness is unbelievable! 
     They talk openly on the tape about concocting their plan 
     under the noses of unsuspecting parents and friends. They 
     mention the time a clerk from Green Mountain Guns called 
     Harris's home. His father answered. ``The clips are in,'' the 
     clerk said. Wayne Harris told the clerk he hadn't ordered any 
     clips for a gun, but never asked the clerk if he had the 
     right phone number.
       Barry Loukaitis, then 14, walked into his Moses Lake, 
     Washington Junior High School, wearing a black trenchcoat and 
     carrying a high-powered rifle. The coat also concealed two 
     fully stocked ammunition belts around his chest and a hip 
     holster carrying two low-caliber handguns, both owned by his 
     parents. Loukaitis burst into his Algebra classroom and began 
     spraying bullets. He shot first at a popular boy who had 
     taunted him, and then two other students and a teacher. When 
     it was over, using a line from a novel, he said, ``Sure beats 
     Algebra, doesn't it?''. All but one of the students died.
       In Bethel, Alaska, a 16-year-old used a 12-gauge shotgun to 
     kill his principal and a classmate. In Pearl, Mississippi; 
     West Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Springfield, 
     Oregon; and Conyors, Georgia, this terrifying scene keeps 
     reoccurring with startling similarity and frightening 
     regularity. And of course, here in Michigan we have Nathaniel 
     Abraham, a convicted murderer at

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     age 11, and, in West Michigan, maybe just missed something of 
     this nature when Justin Walters pleaded no contest to ethnic 
     intimidation charges after he and another boy in Holland were 
     found to have allegedly compiled a hit list that targeted 
     minority students at their school.
       In 1996, handguns were used to murder only 2 people in New 
     Zealand, only 15 in Japan, only 30 in Great Britain, and only 
     106 in our neighbor Canada. In that same year 9,390 handgun 
     murders occurred in this country. In fact, that is only part 
     of the approximately 33,000 firearm-related deaths in the 
     United States--roughly the same number of Americans as were 
     killed in the Korean War. Choose any 2 years in the 90's, and 
     guns in the United States killed more people than in all the 
     long years of the Vietnam War. Each week, more than 600 
     people in the United States die from gun-related incidents. 
     Many of them are children. In 1997, half of the handgun 
     homicides were kids under 19. Every day in America, 12 young 
     people die of gunshot wounds. Even accidental shooting deaths 
     take a hideous toll: The rate for accidental gun deaths for 
     children under 15 in the United States is 9 times higher than 
     the rate for the other 25 industrial nations combined.
       Before we can talk about creating solutions, I want to 
     suggest that we have to begin by taking a new and different 
     approach. The typical rhetoric around the issue of so-called 
     gun control almost always ends up with the people on the 
     Right declaring that the Second Amendment to the 
     Constitution's language about ``the right of the people to 
     keep and bear arms not being infringed'' is an automatic 
     license to own any firearm you want, protected from 
     governmental intrusion. And the people on the Left answer by 
     saying that what we have to do is outlaw guns entirely. But 
     the reality is that there are some 240 million guns in this 
     country, well over 90 million of them handguns, which are not 
     just going to go away.
       The missing link to much more effective regulation has to 
     be keyed to our concern for our children. Has anyone missed 
     the point of this speech so far? That while we continue to 
     talk about this issue, to debate this issue, to fight over 
     gun ownership rights, children are dying everywhere in 
     America, including our own community. Whatever the 
     Constitutional rights of adults are, we have always had a 
     Constitutional basis to be more restrictive and more 
     protective about our children. As Mayor and a practicing 
     trial lawyer for more than 30 years, I suggest that this is a 
     point of entry into better solutions. By focusing on 
     protecting our children, we can avoid most, if not all of the 
     most divisive legal issues.
       But first we have to slow down the Michigan Legislature. 
     Fifty-six weapons bills were introduced in Lansing in 1999. 
     Let me describe only two of them. One dealt with carrying 
     concealed weapons, or ``CCW.'' Here in Kent County, as in 
     most of the densely populated counties in Michigan, our 
     concealed weapons permit board is very conservative. Few 
     permits are issued, and then only for a very real need. 
     Other, more rural counties are sometimes more liberal in 
     their approach. Somehow this difference between urban and 
     rural counties has offended certain members of the 
     Legislature because of its ``lack of uniformity.'' So a 
     bill was rushed into both chambers to strip away that 
     local discretion and make Michigan a ``shall issue'' 
     state, which means that unless the applicant was nuts or a 
     convicted felon, he gets a permit. Overnight, virtually 
     any person wanting to carry a concealed weapon would be 
     able to do so. Not one big-city mayor or police chief in 
     Michigan supported this terrible idea. But if it hadn't 
     been for Eric Harris and Dylon Klebold in Littleton, 
     Colorado, the law would have been changed. Even this 
     bill's most ardent supporters didn't have the stomach to 
     pass this legislation after the slaughter at Columbine. 
     But, be assured it will resurface and be tried again.
       Then there is HB 4379, which would not only block lawsuits 
     against the gun industry by state and local governments, but 
     also private organizations and individuals; and more 
     importantly to where I believe we have to go, it would 
     explicitly block state government from requiring safety locks 
     or warning labels on guns. This proposal had 58 sponsors in 
     the House of Representatives, more than enough to assure 
     passage in that chamber, unless they start receiving 
     different messages from all of us. We must say ``no'' to more 
     pro-gun manufacturer legislation.
       Things are not any better in Washington. Last fall the 
     majority Whip in the House of Representatives, Congressman 
     Tom Delay, was quoted as saying, ``This House is a pro-gun 
     House.'' Last May the U.S. Senate passed a juvenile justice 
     bill and added an amendment requiring trigger-locking devices 
     to protect children. This was also the bill that by one vote, 
     51-50 with Vice President Gore casting the deciding vote, the 
     Senate agreed to regulate sales at gun shows. Well, that 
     piece of legislation is now languishing in the House-Senate 
     Conference Committee, where no one shows the political will 
     necessary to move it forward. Somehow we have to inspire 
     these people to do the right thing. We must begin to demand a 
     regulatory and statutory framework that protects our 
     children--even from themselves.
       Here are some of the issues that we can and should begin 
     demanding receive serious consideration:
       (1) Require background checks for all guns purchased at gun 
     shows. All dealers should be federally licensed, requiring 
     them to conduct a background check prior to selling a 
     firearm. There are now more than 4,000 annual gun shows 
     dedicated primarily to the sale or exchange of firearms. Our 
     friends at The Grand Rapids Press supported this requirement 
     in an editorial on September 29, 1999.
       (2) Require trigger locks. Conservative Republican Governor 
     Christine Todd Whitman, on October 13, 1999, made New Jersey 
     the fourth state in the nation to prohibit the sale of any 
     new handgun without a trigger lock. In 1998 New York City 
     passed a local ordinance making sellers responsible for 
     issuing trigger locks. When that didn't get the job done, on 
     October 14, 1999, the city passed an ordinance punishing gun 
     owners with a year in jail if they fail to use trigger locks. 
     Chicago, San Francisco, and the State of Massachusetts all 
     have similar requirements. According to a Wall Street 
     Journal/NBC News poll last July, 94% of women and 81% of men 
     support requiring that guns have safety triggers. If we can 
     implement this rule without new state legislation, I will ask 
     the City Commission to do so. If not, I will lobby for the 
     necessary state law change to do so.
       (3) California, in addition to outlawing ``Saturday Night 
     Specials,'' has passed a law limiting sales of handguns to 
     one per month. Republican Governor Bill Owens of Colorado has 
     endorsed raising the legal age to buy a gun from 18 to 21. To 
     keep firearms out of children's reach, he wants a law 
     requiring safe storage. Finally, he would make ``straw 
     purchases,'' the guys that buy in bulk for resale to anyone 
     including particularly, teenagers, illegal.
       (4) The domestic production of large-capacity ammunition 
     clips, ones that carry more than 10 rounds, has already been 
     banned. But a loophole as large as the cargo hold of a 
     freighter still exists. The importation of these large-
     capacity ammo clips needs to be outlawed as well.
       (5) Seventeen states have passed Child Access Prevention 
     laws, so-called CAP laws. Florida, governed by Jeb Bush, was 
     the first state to pass such a law and has seen unintentional 
     shooting deaths drop by more than 50% in the first year. 
     These laws would make a gun owner responsible if a child 
     gains access to an improperly stored firearm and uses it to 
     kill or injure others. Almost 60% of students in grades 6 
     through 12 have indicated that they know where to get a gun, 
     and a third of them said that they could get one within an 
     hour. The unlocked, loaded gun in the home should become a 
     thing of the past.
       (6) And finally, technology is almost available for so-
     called ``smart guns''--firearms equipped with an electronic 
     device to prevent anyone but the owner from firing it. When 
     you look at the billions of dollars that we spend annually to 
     fight and attempt to conquer diseases, would it not be 
     justified to fund and thereby advance the timetable for 
     research on this smart gun technology to bring it to the 
     marketplace sooner rather than later?
       Whether or not we are in the 21st Century, we have 
     certainly turned a numerical milestone. This year begins, for 
     the first time, with a ``2.'' In my recent Third Inaugural 
     Address, I had an opportunity to look back at the 19th 
     Century's Last Will and Testament as it appeared in The Grand 
     Rapids Herald, on December 31, 1900. The Editor was Arthur 
     VandenBurg, who would later become our U.S. Senator. The Will 
     bequeathed inventions, books and reading, an honest ballot 
     box, the need for equal civil rights, care for the 
     disadvantaged, and concerns about armaments. I made the 
     observation that it appeared that 100 years later we were 
     still struggling with many of the same issues.
       Gun violence being perpetrated by children, or at them, was 
     nowhere to be found in the years 1899 or 1900. It is a 
     product of the age we now live in--perhaps just the last 25 
     years. I hope that what we have unfortunately found to be 
     true about the social problems which are still with us from 
     100 years ago, would not be true for this issue 100 years 
     from now. You know, one definition of insanity is doing the 
     same thing over and over again, and expecting different 
     results. We can, we should, and we must change our strategy 
     toward guns and children to achieve a better outcome.
       I can think of no greater cause behind which we all can 
     join, than saving the lives of our young people. I have 
     attended the funerals for two of my brother Jim's three 
     children--one dead of natural causes, the other from a car 
     accident. Burying children, having their lives abruptly cut 
     off, is truly a tragedy.
       Over the last 10 years, our community has grown in stature 
     in this West Michigan region, in this State, and even beyond. 
     Protecting our children is an issue that can and should 
     transcend party politics and conservative and liberal 
     ideologies. I am confident that we can make a difference. Let 
     us commit to doing so.

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