[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 108 (Thursday, September 14, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S8574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TEENS FAVOR SENSIBLE GUN LAWS

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, a new study conducted by researchers 
at Hamilton College reveals that students across the country are 
strongly in favor of sensible gun laws. According to the report, 
approximately ninety percent of high school students surveyed support 
proposals such as the registration of handguns and licensing of handgun 
owners, criminal background checks for prospective gun purchasers, and 
five-day ``cooling off periods.'' In addition, eighty to ninety percent 
of the teens surveyed in the poll support laws that would require all 
guns to be sold with trigger locks, require all gun buyers to pass a 
safety course, and hold adults criminally responsible for keeping a 
loaded firearm where it could be reasonably accessed by a child and 
that child harms himself or others.
  Here are some of the other findings from the report: ``High school 
students back handgun regulation at higher levels than respondents in 
recent adult surveys; High school students believe that the 
Constitution protects the right of citizens to own guns. But they 
reject the idea that government regulation of the sale and use of 
handguns violates this right; Almost half of high school students say 
it would be easy for a teenager to obtain a handgun in their 
neighborhood. A third report that they know of someone at their school 
who has been threatened with a gun or shot at.''
  The Hamilton College researchers were the first to nationally survey 
high school students about their feelings toward gun issues. I am not 
surprised that the results show overwhelming support for the gun safety 
proposals that many of us in Congress have been trying to enact into 
law. Students are well-versed on the dangers of guns in their homes and 
schools. In this survey, more than twenty-five percent of students 
reported that they or someone close to them has been ``shot by a gun.''
  Mr. President, with just a few weeks remaining until the Senate's 
target adjournment date, it's long past time to act. Let's listen to 
our young people and enact the sensible gun laws they want and need to 
keep American schools safer from gun violence.

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