[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7462-7464]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  JUVENILE GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION ACT

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there are many of us who believe that 
today's debate should have been focused on protection of another group, 
not the businesses of America but the children of America, because, try 
as we might to capture public attention about the necessity for Y2K 
legislation, American's attention is still riveted on Littleton, CO, 
and Columbine High School.
  We have had meetings across my home State of Illinois, as my 
colleagues have had across their States, talking to leaders, 
schoolchildren, police, psychologists, virtually every group 
imaginable, about what happened in Littleton, CO.
  Sadly, it is a repetition of events which have occurred too often in 
our recent history.
  October 1, 1997, Pearl, MS, a 16-year-old boy killed his mother, went 
to high school, and shot nine students, two fatally.
  December 1, 1997, West Paducah, KY, three students were killed, five 
were found wounded in the hallway of Heath High School by a 14-year-
old.
  March 24, 1998, Jonesboro, AR, 4 girls and a teacher shot to death, 
10 people wounded, during a false fire alarm in middle school when two 
boys age 11 and 13 opened fire from the woods.
  April 24, 1998, Edinboro, PA, a science teacher shot to death in 
front of students at an eighth-grade dance by a 14-year-old.
  May 19, 1998, Fayetteville, TN, 3 days before graduation, an 18-year-
old honor student, allegedly opened fire in a parking lot of a high 
school, killing a classmate who was dating his ex-girlfriend.
  May 21, 1998, Springfield, OR, 2 teenagers were killed and more than 
20 people were hurt when a 15-year old boy allegedly opened fire on a 
high school; the boy's parents were killed at their home.
  Then there is Littleton, CO, 13 victims and the 2 alleged 
perpetrators, dead, as a result of gunfire that killed so many. Time 
and again we have been told these are unusual circumstances and not 
likely to happen again.
  Sadly, history has proven they have become all too common place. Can 
anyone believe that our hometown, the high school in our home city, is 
immune from this sort of violence? I don't believe so. Frankly, it is 
because there are many troubled children. That is a problem which needs 
to be addressed directly and seriously.
  It is a responsibility that falls on the shoulders of parents first, 
classmates, teachers, principals, psychologists, counselors, those who 
see the warning signs, to bring these children to the attention of 
others. Troubled children are not new to society. They have been there 
for many, many years. Troubled children in my generation waited on the 
parking lot to punch you or they threw something at you; troubled 
children today find a gun. That troubled child moves from being a sad 
reality to

[[Page 7463]]

a tragedy, a tragedy in multiple numbers, time and time again.
  Today I come to the floor with several of my colleagues--Senator 
Kennedy, Senator Schumer, Senator Boxer, and others--prepared to offer 
an amendment to this bill to say to my colleagues that protecting 
business is important; protecting children is more important. As 
important as the Y2K debate is to many business interests, families 
across America are not going to stay up tonight watching television and 
talk about Y2K; they may and they should talk about violence in schools 
and how it is becoming epidemic in America.
  The legislation we were prepared to offer today, the Juvenile Gun 
Violence Prevention Act, has about eight or nine provisions. We had the 
amendment prepared and we had our cloture motion signed, by 16 Members 
of the Senate. We were going to make this a day for at least a debate, 
if not a political confrontation, as to why the Senate fails to 
consider that legislation at a time when America wonders if we have 
become impotent when it comes to dealing with violence in our schools.
  I am happy to report a development occurred on the floor a short time 
ago which really has changed the face of this debate. Senator Trent 
Lott, the majority leader, the Republican majority leader, came to the 
floor. I understand he was apprised of our intentions and he made an 
announcement that within 2 weeks we will be able to debate these issues 
about school violence, guns, and related issues here on the floor of 
the Senate.
  Some may say, Well, what else would you do in the U.S. Senate? My 
friends, for 2 years we have faced committees on Capitol Hill which 
basically will not report out any bills related to guns. We don't talk 
about that subject around here. It is as if it is somehow sacred and 
you can't bring it up and you can't debate it. That is why Senator 
Lott's concession today that we will have this chance to vote on 
important legislation relative to our schools is so important across 
America.
  I say to all those who follow the issue, my heart goes out to the 
victims and their families in Littleton, CO. It goes out, as well, to 
the other students whose lives will never ever be the same, having 
witnessed this horror and this violence. It goes out to students across 
America concerned about their schools.
  How many more of our schools have to be desecrated by bullets and 
blood? How many more of our teachers and students have to be prepared 
to give up their lives at school to defend their classmates? How many 
more parents will have to search their memories to try to remember the 
last words they said to their child as he went off to his last day in 
school, his last day on Earth? How many more deaths? How many more 
funerals?
  It is time now that America will come together and say to this 
Congress, as representative of the American people, Do something. We 
can't solve all these problems, we can't make every troubled kid normal 
again, but please, reduce the firepower of these children who have such 
twisted minds, these children who are bent on violence.
  This legislation which we are proposing I hope will become bipartisan 
legislation. I am sorry to report that it will be almost historic if it 
is, but some Senators have stepped forward in the past from the 
Republican side to support this legislation. I hope some will show the 
courage to do that again.
  This legislation addresses a number of points, some that are so 
obvious it is a shame we have to legislate. Should a gunowner be 
responsible for the safe storage of his or her gun? Should a gunowner 
who knows that children are in the house have to put the gun under lock 
and key or put a trigger lock on it? Sixteen States say yes, this is 
the law. If you don't, you, as a gunowner, will be held criminally 
responsible. We say this should be a national law. Mr. President, 13 or 
14 children every day in America die by gun violence. Columbine High 
School focuses our attention on 1 day and 15 lives, but every single 
day there is a massacre spread across this country that doesn't capture 
our attention like Littleton, CO.
  We also have a provision which some will find incredible. Did you 
know that currently under Federal law a child is prohibited, with few 
exceptions, from possessing and purchasing a handgun, but there is no 
prohibition against possessing and purchasing a semiautomatic weapon? 
That is currently the law. We hope to change it.
  Did you know that if a firearm dealer willfully and knowingly sells a 
gun to a child in violation of the law, there is no automatic 
revocation of their license? I think there should be.
  Did you know, as well, that at gun shows across America all of the 
provisions of the Brady law for background checks and waiting periods 
do not apply? We suspect--we are still waiting to hear--that one of the 
weapons used by these children in Littleton, CO, to kill the others was 
purchased through a straw purchaser at a gun show and given to the 
child. Is America unable to deal with this? I think we can, and we 
should.
  Did you know you can buy firearms over the Internet? How in the world 
could you responsibly sell a firearm over the Internet, not knowing on 
the other side if the purchaser is 15, 16, 17 years old, or a former 
criminal, or someone with a history of violent mental illness? To me, 
these things seem so obvious.
  I yield for a question from my colleague from California, who has 
been a supporter on this issue.
  Mrs. BOXER. I thank my friend from Illinois for putting together this 
very important piece of legislation which has a number of fine ideas to 
protect our children. I associate myself with the Senator's remarks.
  While we deal with the computer problem, we have essentially not been 
able to offer this bill today. It is hard for me to believe that. The 
majority leader said it would not be right to deal with this because we 
are still coping with the sorrow of Littleton, CO. The best thing we 
can do in the name of those children is to do something to stop this 
from happening again.
  I had a question for my friend, because I want his reaction, his 
comment to this. In the 11 years of the Vietnam war, we lost 58,000 
Americans, a tragedy that brought this country to its knees. Every 
institution was questioned. The country has never been the same. We are 
just getting over it.
  In the last 11 years, I say to my friend, 400,000 people have been 
killed in this country by firearms. Let me repeat that: 58,000 killed 
in the 11 years of the Vietnam war; 400,000 killed in the streets of 
this country. That doesn't even count three times the number of people 
who wind up in hospitals, nursing wounds that will be with them for the 
rest of their life. That doesn't even put a dollar figure on a couple 
billion of dollars a year to pay for the wounds to those people. Does 
my friend think there has to be some outrage here?
  The people in this country are looking for leadership. Our Chaplain 
led us in the most magnificent prayer I have ever heard him give, and 
he gives good prayers. I have to say to my friend, I have been praying 
for too many people who were gunned down, including one of my son's 
best friends who did nothing more than visit his wife in her law firm, 
when a man walked in with a TEC-9 --the same gun that was used by these 
kids--and mowed him down as he threw himself over his wife to save her 
life, which he did. He died.
  Prayers are very important right now. We turn to God at these 
moments, but we also have to turn to ourselves. What the Senator is 
saying is, it is time for this Senate to do something about this 
problem.
  I would like to get his reaction to those numbers I put out here. 
Again, I thank him for this opportunity to comment on his legislation.
  Mr. DURBIN. I thank my friend and colleague from California.
  My reaction is this: I am concerned about two things. I am concerned 
that the American people have given up on us. I believe they have come 
to the conclusion that for political reasons we cannot do the obvious; 
we cannot pass the laws to keep guns out of the hands of kids. I think 
they are wrong. I hope we can prove them wrong.
  Certainly the record of the last few decades suggests that we have 
been

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blind to this carnage in our streets, people living in fear of walking 
down the street in Los Angeles or Chicago, kids living in fear of 
walking on the playground. There is a school on the west side of 
Chicago called the Austin Career Academy. When that high school is 
about to adjourn for the day, let the children go home, the police come 
and close the streets around the schools so that the gang bangers 
cannot drive by and shoot the children as they come out of the schools.
  That is daily life in too many places in America. We can argue about 
what we can do and why the people should give up on this Congress. I 
hope they do not. But we cannot give up on our children, because if we 
do, we have failed our most fundamental responsibility.
  I know this is tough, because some of our colleagues, even on the 
Democratic side and on the Republican side, have great concerns about 
the gun lobby and what they might do if they vote for any legislation. 
It is a tough vote, a hard vote, but I hope they will step back for a 
second and say we cannot allow this violence and killing to continue in 
American schools.
  Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield one more moment?
  Mr. DURBIN. Definitely.
  Mrs. BOXER. I want to pick up on that point because there is a gun 
lobby. We all see it, we all know it, there are a lot of bucks behind 
it. But there is another lobby out there, the people, and the people 
want us to do sensible measures to protect our children.
  I want to make one last point to my colleague, and that is, in my 
home State of California, the largest State in the Union by far--34 
million people--the No. 1 cause of death among children from the minute 
they are born until they are 18, the No. 1 cause of death is gunshots--
No. 1 cause of death.
  If we had a disease that was the No. 1 cause of death, we would be 
working on this floor feverishly until we addressed that disease. This 
is a disease.
  I have to say to my friend, I watched him take on the tobacco lobby 
and win. There is not a time I do not get on an airplane and realize I 
do not have to smell that smoke and have that in my lungs that I don't 
think of him and his courage in that matter. When he came over here, I 
just knew reinforcements were coming for some of these tough issues, 
and this is one of them.
  This is a tough one, but that is what we are here for. It is very 
easy to vote for the easy bills. It is easy to vote for ``Children's 
Appreciation Day.'' It is easy to do that. It is a little tougher when 
you take on the gun lobby.
  I hope we are judged by this. My experience is that people respect 
you, even if they might not agree with you, if you have the guts to do 
something about a problem.
  I say to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, please join with 
us. Some of these issues are so easy for you to vote for. For example, 
one of them you have in here says if a local district has a proposal in 
for more cops on the beat, waive the matching fund if the community 
police are assigned to the schools. That is one that does not even 
touch a gun. But today we are told by the majority leader that he 
believes it would be unseemly to act. That is his view. I respect it. I 
don't think it is unseemly to act in the wake of this tragedy. I think 
people want us to act in the wake of this tragedy.
  Thank you. I yield back to my colleague.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I will close by saying I am happy that the 
majority leader, Senator Lott, has made this commitment publicly on the 
floor of the Senate that within 2 weeks we will have debate on 
legislation such as I have described here. The important thing about 
that debate is not what is said on the floor of the Senate between 
Senators. What is important between now and that 2-week deadline is 
what is said by the American people to those who serve in the Senate.
  For those who are watching the proceedings of the Senate or who read 
the Record, I hope you will understand that if you are not part of this 
debate, if you do not pick up your telephone, if you do not take a pen 
and write a letter, if you do not send an e-mail saying, ``For goodness 
sake, do something about violence in our schools and the proliferation 
of guns in the hands of children,'' I can guarantee you that the 
outcome of this debate is going to be a disappointment to families 
across America.
  Do not give up on Congress. This is an institution which is serving 
this country and all of the American families in it. The families have 
to come forward now. They have to be heard from. It is not enough to 
say the school year is coming to an end, so that will be the end of 
school violence. There will always be another school year, history 
tells us, sadly, always an opportunity for another tragedy. Let us 
learn something valuable from the suffering of the families in 
Littleton, CO. Let us vow, Democrat and Republican alike, that we will 
do everything in our power to reduce school violence and make this a 
safer place for our children.
  I yield back my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Crapo). Who yields time?

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