[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8294]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1415

            WEAPONS OF WAR ON OUR STREETS AND IN OUR SCHOOLS

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, in the wake of the Littleton, Colorado, 
tragedy yesterday, the gentleman from California (Mr. Henry Waxman) and 
I sat at a hearing on the GAO report on the 50-caliber, state-of-the-
art military rifle that is of Persian Gulf vintage.
  The problem is that this armor-piercing sniper rifle, meant to bring 
down tanks and jeeps, has now infiltrated the States. GAO investigators 
went undercover in the National Capital area region and found dealers 
willing to sell the rifle even when the agent said he was interested in 
taking down a helicopter and in piercing a limousine.
  All that is needed is an 18-year-old ID and no felony conviction. In 
contrast, you have to be 21 to get a handgun. Amazingly, there is no 
regulation of secondhand assault weapons.
  Some of the weapons used at Columbine High School were bought at a 
gun show. Let us fill this loophole and keep the weapons of war off our 
streets and out of our schools.

                          ____________________