[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1833]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               TRAGEDY IN MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. CARSON. Mr. Speaker, I speak today about the devastating tragedy 
in Mount Morris Township, Michigan, at Buell Elementary School, where a 
6-year-old girl was shot and killed by a 6-year-old schoolmate. My 
thoughts and prayers go out to the families and to the schools and to 
the communities in this very devastating period of their lives.

                              {time}  1430

  Gun violence is an invasive problem within our society, with children 
often becoming the victims, perpetuated, unfortunately, by children. 
Unfortunately, the tragedy in Michigan is not the first. We have all 
too often witnessed horrific school violence throughout the Nation, 
tragic stories of children being killed in schools in West Paducah, 
Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Littleton, Colorado; and now in Mount 
Morris township, Michigan.
  We have been shown that Americans are devastated by the impact that 
gun violence has on our children. Nearly 12 children die each day from 
gunfire in America, approximately one every two hours. That is 
equivalent to a classroom of children every 2 days. Gun violence is an 
equal opportunity disaster. Of the nearly 80,000 children killed by 
gunfire since 1979, 61 percent were white and 36 percent were black.
  The National School Boards Association estimates that more than 135 
guns are brought into the U.S. schools each day. Ten percent of all 
public schools experienced one or more serious crimes such as murder, 
rape, suicide, physical attack with a weapon, or robbery during the 
1996-1997 school year that were reported to law enforcement.
  Within my district, Indianapolis, Indiana's Tenth Congressional 
District, guns were confiscated on the Indianapolis public school 
property in 14 separate incidents. In December in Indianapolis, a 7th 
grader shot an eighth grader while riding a bus home from school.
  I am outraged and saddened by the school violence that invades our 
schools, our communities, and our homes. Schools should be a safe haven 
for children to learn and to thrive and grow, where violence is not a 
fear for our children.
  The bill that I introduced, H.R. 515, the Child Handgun Injury 
Prevention Act, which is a bill to prevent children from injuring 
themselves with handguns, requires child safety devices on handguns, 
and establishes standards and testing procedures for those devices. It 
does not describe specifically what kind of safety device, but it does, 
indeed, ask for a safety device.
  At present it has only 66 cosponsors, not nearly enough. I would 
encourage my colleagues to rise to the challenge, avoid the resistance 
from anti-gun control lobbying advocates, take a strong stance against 
violence in our schools, and stand up for our children.
  Promoting strong child handgun prevention legislation is not only the 
right thing to do; indeed, it is the moral thing to do.

                          ____________________