[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8826-8827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        VIOLENCE IN OUR SOCIETY

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, earlier this week I addressed the Economic 
Club of Detroit, one of the most influential groups of community 
leaders in my State. I expressed the depth of my continuing concern 
about the level of violence in our society, particularly youth 
violence. I committed myself to continue to speak out against the easy 
access to guns, especially by young people. I intend to comment on this 
subject every week in the Senate, when the Senate is in session, to 
highlight the need of our Nation to face this critical issue, to 
discuss the growing crisis fueled by weapons among our young people, 
and to urge action to meet our responsibility in the Senate to work 
towards solutions.
  There is no one cause of youth violence. The causes are many. But 
among them there is one that cannot be ignored or denied, the easy 
access to deadly weapons for our young people. If we are honest with 
ourselves, we will admit it is too easy for children to get their hands 
on guns because we made it too easy to get guns, period; too easy to 
get guns that have nothing to do with the needs of hunters and 
sportsmen, guns that are too often used to kill people.
  Yes, we have all heard the glib rhetoric of the NRA, that ``guns 
don't kill people, people kill people.'' This bumper-sticker logic 
obscures the real truth. People with guns kill people, and they do it 
some 35,000 times a year in this country. That is more deaths than we 
suffered in the 3-year-long Korean war. The number of times that 
handguns were used to commit murder is itself staggering, some 9,300 
times in the United States in 1996. In that same year in Japan, a 
nation almost half our size, there were 15 murders with handguns--just 
15 handgun murders for a country with half our population. There were 
9,300 murders here in the United States.
  We have every right as parents and as consumers to expect some 
responsibility from the entertainment industry. But I am told Japanese 
popular culture is even more violent than our own.
  However severe this plague of gun violence is for society as a whole, 
for the young it is far worse. For young males, the firearm death rate 
is nearly twice that of all other diseases combined. A National Centers 
for Disease Control study found 2 of every 25 high school students 
reported having carried a gun in the previous 30 days. If those numbers 
were evenly distributed among communities and schools, that would

[[Page 8827]]

mean that in the average classroom, two students have carried guns at 
some time in the previous month.
  These figures are shocking, but they are hardly secret. We have grown 
so accustomed to the carnage that guns cause in America that only the 
most horrific acts of violence are capable of shaking us from our 
slumber. As I told the Economic Club of Detroit, the question we have 
to ask ourselves in the wake of the Columbine High School tragedy is: 
Are we willing to say that enough is enough? And will we say it not 
just today but next week and next month and next year?
  The NRA is betting we will not. They believe their brand of single-
minded, single-issue politics can once again paralyze us from acting, 
once these images of death and pain in Colorado fade from view. They 
are going to go on telling their members that even the most measured 
gun control proposal is a thinly veiled attempt to take away their 
legitimate hunting weapons. It will not stop there. They will use that 
membership as a potent political tool to intimidate candidates for 
office. It is a sad fact that, thus far, too many Americans and too 
many American children and their parents live in fear of gun violence 
because too many of us in Washington live in fear of the political 
power of the lobbyists of the NRA.
  I believe there is also a power when people unite to demand action--
businesspeople, labor union people, parents, teachers, police officers, 
young people, the clergy. When I look at the kind of coalition that 
could be represented by groups like that, I see a potential power that 
could dwarf any narrow special interest. The question is not whether we 
are in the majority. The polls show that a large majority of Americans 
will support strong action to reduce access of minors to guns. The 
question is not whether we have the power. We do. The question is 
whether we are willing to act to make America a safer country. For 
starters, we must ban the possession and sale of handguns, 
semiautomatic weapons, by and to minors.
  We paused in this Chamber to observe a moment of silence in honor of 
the victims of gun violence in Colorado. We observe these moments of 
silence to pay tribute to those who have died and to express our 
sympathy for their loved ones. But now, with this latest tribute behind 
us, we need to be anything but silent. Those of us who want to act to 
reduce the gun violence need to be louder and clearer and stronger and, 
yes, more persistent than the NRA.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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