[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 148 (Friday, November 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S11206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       2001 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION UNIFORM CRIME REPORT

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, according to the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation's Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2001, 15,980 people 
were murdered last year; 8,719 of the 15,980 deaths were caused by a 
firearm, and of those murders, 6,790 were caused by a handgun. Six 
hundred and seventy-two murders occurred in my home State of Michigan. 
These numbers are staggering. There are several commonsense bills in 
the Senate that would reduce gun violence and gun crime, and I am 
disappointed that it appears that the 107th Congress will come to a 
close without the enactment of meaningful gun safety legislation.
  On April 24, 2001, Senator Reed introduced the Gun Show Background 
Check Act. This bill would close a loophole in the law which allows 
unlicensed private gun dealers to sell guns without performing a 
National Instant Criminal Background System check. I cosponsored that 
bill because I believe it would be an important tool to prevent guns 
from getting into the hands of criminals and other people prohibited 
from owning a firearm.
  I am also a cosponsor of Senator Durbin's Children's Access 
Prevention Act. Under this bill, adults who fail to lock up a loaded 
firearm or an unloaded firearm with ammunition would be held liable if 
the weapon is taken by a child and used to kill or injure themselves or 
another person. The bill also increases the penalties for selling a gun 
to a juvenile and creates a gun safety education program that includes 
parent-teacher organizations, local law enforcement and community 
organizations. This bill is similar to a bill President Bush signed 
into law during his tenure as the Governor of Texas.
  More recently, I cosponsored Senator Kohl's Ballistics, Law 
Assistance, and Safety Technology Act, or BLAST Act, which would 
require licensed firearms manufacturers to test fire firearms, and 
prepare ballistics images of the fired bullets and casings of new 
firearms. Expanding the National Integrated Ballistics Information 
Network to include these ballistics images would increase the crime gun 
tracing capabilities of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. 
ATF agents could quickly identify firearms by using the ballistics 
images of cartridge casings and bullets recovered at crime scenes, even 
when criminals obliterate the serial number.
  In recent months, we have seen snipers with an assault rifle kill 
people around the country and a student at the University of Arizona go 
to his school and kill three of his teachers and himself. These events 
represent only a few of the thousands of murders that have already 
occurred this year. These brutal killing sprees were given national 
media attention, and hopefully will generate legislative action. While 
there is little time left in the 107th Congress to address these 
issues, it is critical that we press for consideration of these issues 
early in 108th Congress.

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