[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13982]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  PUTTING POLITICS BEFORE OUR CHILDREN

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, as a father of four, I was very 
disappointed in the White House's behavior last week and many of the 
Democrat leadership Members in the House. We had a gun control debate. 
We had a good debate on juvenile justice, and we agreed, ultimately, on 
four out of five key issues. Included in that was closing the loophole 
for gun shows, stricter enforcement, stricter penalties that involved 
guns, trigger locks, and yet, because it was not exactly what the White 
House and the Democrat leadership wanted, they put politics over 
children and torpedoed the bill, killed it, voted it down, and now we 
have nothing.
  In the political body, something is always better than nothing if we 
want to advance the cause, but it is just obvious that politics count 
more than children's safety. As a father, I take off my Republican hat 
and I say, I regret it as a parent.
  Something is going on out there with our children. We need to look at 
all aspects of the pop culture. Is it the violent video games? Is it 
the fact that the average TV-viewing child has seen 16,000 murders on 
TV by the time he is 18 years old? Is it a problem in our schools that 
maybe our classrooms are too large? We should look at all of those 
things. I am sorry that the White House put politics over children.

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