[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 81 (Friday, June 23, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1097-E1098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REAL SOLUTIONS TO VIOLENT CRIME

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAVE WELDON

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 23, 2000

  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the immediate reaction of the 
advocates of additional gun control to violence we see in our 
communities is to call for new, more restrictive gun controls on law-
abiding Americans. The American people are smarter than that. In fact 
recent survey's have shown that the American people don't believe 
additional gun control laws passed by the Congress will reduce crime. 
The American people know that criminals, by definition, are not law 
abiding citizens. Criminals are law-breakers and if they are not 
willing to abide by laws against murder and robbery, they are not going 
to comply with a new law that would require that they go down to the 
local police station and register their firearms. To believe that they 
would do such a thing is lunacy.
  Mr. Speaker, the solution to our problems is two part. To address the 
near-term problem of violent crime we need to lock up criminals, 
including those who use guns in the commission of a crime. Examples of 
where this has been initiated in various states shows that this works. 
Second, we need to emphasize in our society that life has value, that 
life is not expendable.
  Many Americans may recall just a few months ago, the stand-off 
between police and Joseph C. Palczynski, the Maryland man who killed 
four people and held three others hostage in Baltimore this past March. 
Let's take a look at this guy's criminal record, and ask whether or not 
this man should have been out on the streets. (According to Wash Times)
  In 1988 he was convicted of battery and sentenced to two years 
probation. In 1989, he assaulted a 16 year-old girl and was 
subsequently sentenced to four years in jail. However, he was somehow 
let out and in 1991 he beat up his girlfriend, while she attended high 
school. In 1992, following another domestic violence complaint by a 
girlfriend, and after holding police at bay for 16 hours, he was 
arrested on two outstanding warrants including a weapons violation 
charge. In 1995 he received a 10 year suspended sentence for the 
battery of another girlfriend's father.
  On March 4, 2000, he was arrested on assault charges in a domestic-
violence incident and released the next day on a $7,500 bond. Just 2 
days later, on March 7, he murdered three people with a gun bought by a 
friend and on March 8 murdered another person. On March 17-2 1, he held 
police at bay while holding a family hostage.
  Al Gore and his liberal friends in Congress have a solution to 
prevent this crime in the future: gun registration.
  The American people are not stupid. They recognize this as an 
opportunist's attempt to exploit this situation to advance their anti-
Second Amendment agenda. Their solution has no relation to the crime 
and is no solution.
  Common sense says this guy should never have been out on the streets. 
The real solution is to ensure that these types of criminals are kept 
behind bars, not impose new restrictions on the Second Amendment rights 
of law abiding citizens.

[[Page E1098]]

  Let's turn to another tragedy, for which liberals have proposed as a 
solution, additional restrictions on the Second Amendment. It is 
important that we look at the circumstances and see if their solution 
would have addressed the problem.
  In early March, a six year old boy brought a gun to school and shot a 
six year old little girl. This is an unspeakable tragedy and my heart 
goes out to the little girl's family. No one should have their little 
girl taken from them in a senseless act of violence. At its root, this 
tragedy is a reflection of moral decay in our society. It reflects a 
lack of value on human life in American society today.
  As we as a nation consider a response to this tragedy, it is 
important to look at the specific events that led to this tragedy. The 
six year old who shot his classmate was living with his uncle in a 
crack house. The boy's father is in jail for a burglary charge. ABC's 
Nightline indicates that the boy's father had at least five children by 
four different women. The mother had been evicted from her apartment. 
The gun the boy used was sitting out in a bedroom, underneath some 
sheets and was a stolen gun. It has been reported that the gun may have 
been traded for drugs. The father described his son as enjoying violent 
movies and television shows. And, teachers described the boy as 
aggressive and a bully. They also stated that he had been suspended 
from school twice, once for fighting and a second time for stabbing a 
little girl with a pencil.
  Mr. Clinton has already laid the blame for this tragedy at the feet 
of Congress for not approving his gun control proposals. The reality is 
his gun proposals would have done nothing to stop this tragedy, and he 
refuses to admit that the problem in this case runs much deeper into 
the soul of this individual, his relatives, and our nation. Mr. 
Clinton's statement is a shameful exploitation of this tragedy to 
secure support for legislation that would have done nothing to prevent 
this tragedy. Too often the media and politicians point to the need for 
additional gun control as the ``solution'' because they do not have any 
other answers or lack the will to consider the root causes that lead to 
these tragedies.
  It appears that this child was raised in a culture of violence with 
little respect for the rights of others, including the right to life. 
The blame for this tragedy rests primarily with the parents who failed 
to teach this child to respect life and others. Also, the peddlers of 
violence in our society are also partly to blame. Professor William 
Allen, at Michigan State University, said it best when he stated, 
``When you have 6 year olds shooting 6 year olds, you are not talking 
about crimes anymore, you're talking about moral decay.''
  We are dealing with a cultural meltdown. Many are proposing simple, 
quick fix solutions. However, we must recognize that there are no quick 
fixes to such a tragedy. At the root of this tragedy is a corruption of 
the heart and soul of our nation. We must work to restore a value on 
life.
  We must counter the message that some adults in our society are 
sending is that some life is expendable. Children learn from our 
actions. Not only do many of our movies, music lyrics, and video games 
portray life as expendable, but many of the actions of adults in our 
society convey this message as well. When our children see adults, 
including political leaders, advocating the acceptance of drugs, 
euthanasia, partial-birth abortions, and abortion on demand, adults 
devalue life and teach our young people that life is expendable.
  Today, we must ask ourselves if we will have the courage to confront 
the root causes of violence. I am once again reminded of the comments 
made by Mother Teresa in 1994, when she stated ``Our children depend on 
us for everything--their health, their nutrition, their security, their 
coming to love and know God. For all of this, they look to us with 
trust, hope, and expectation. But often father and mother are so busy 
they have no time for their children . . . So their children go to the 
streets and get involved in drugs or other things. We are talking of 
love of the child, which is where love and peace must begin.'' We as a 
nation must heed this advice.
  We must work to renew in our society a respect for the value that 
human life has. Only if society places a higher value on life will we 
be able to make serious progress in reducing the violence in our 
society.

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