[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2423-2424]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



            ENDING THE DELAY ON JUVENILE JUSTICE LEGISLATION

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, is it any wonder why the approval ratings of 
the Congress go up every time we go into recess? The American people 
are watching us, and they are wondering if we are really paying 
attention to the issues important to them. I fear that we are not 
paying enough attention, certainly.
  Next month, the nation will observe the 1-year anniversary of the 
tragic shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, in which fifteen 
people, including the two student gunmen, were killed. But this tragedy 
is not unique.
  In May 1992, a 20-year-old killed four people and wounded ten others 
in an armed siege at his former high school in California.
  In January 1993, a 17-year-old walked into his teacher's seventh-
period English class in Kentucky, and shot her in the head. He then 
shot the janitor in the abdomen.
  In February 1996, a 14-year-old student took an assault rifle to his 
school in Washington state and opened fire on his algebra class, 
killing two classmates and a teacher.
  One year later, in February 1997, a 16-year-old student opened fire 
with a shotgun at a school in Alaska, killing a classmate and the 
school principal and wounding two other students.
  In October 1997, a 16-year-old student, after shooting his mother, 
went to school with a gun and shot nine students, killing two of them.
  In December 1997, a student opened fire on a student prayer circle at 
a Kentucky school, killing three students and wounding five others.
  In March 1998, a pair of boys took rifles to school and turned them 
on classmates and teachers when they exited the building in response to 
a false fire alarm at their Arkansas school. Four girls and a teacher 
were killed, and 11 people were wounded.
  In April 1998, at a Pennsylvania school, a 14-year-old-boy fatally 
shot a teacher and wounded two students at an eighth-grade dance.
  The following month, in May 1998, a high school senior shot and 
killed another student in the school parking lot in Tennessee, and then 
turned the gun on himself.
  Two days later, a freshman student in Oregon opened fire with a semi-
automatic rifle in a high school cafeteria, killing two students and 
wounding 22 others. The teen's parents were later found shot to death 
in their home. This freshman student did not heed the admonition of the 
Scriptures which says: Honor thy father and thy mother. He proceeded to 
kill his father and his mother.
  Then, a month after last year's massacre at Columbine High School, in 
May 1999, a 15-year-old gunman--I suppose you could call a 15-year-old 
a gunman--opened fire on fellow students in Georgia, injuring six 
students, including one critically.
  Most recently, last week in Flint, Michigan, a six-year-old boy took 
a gun to school and killed a six-year-old girl in front of their 
shocked classmates. Six-year-olds killing six-year-olds--what have we 
come to? And yet, the Congress fails to act. Are we blind? Are we numb 
to these killings? Even in the city in which we work, the tragedies are 
mounting. In the District of Columbia, since the school year began in 
September, 18 juveniles have been killed. Of those, police say that 
half of them started as arguments at school and ended in death in 
nearby neighborhood streets.
  Isn't this enough? Can't this Congress hear the cry of the American 
students, and their parents, to step up to the plate and at least 
debate ways to help break this cycle of violence? I know that Congress 
cannot solve this problem on its own, just as an individual school 
board or PTA cannot resolve this crisis acting as a single institution. 
But we, the elected leaders of this nation who are very quick to point 
to problems in other nations, are not even talking about ways to end 
this horrific record of children killing children.
  Day after day, we criticize one nation for human rights violations or 
another nation for failing to meet the needs of its people. But who are 
we to look across the waters and criticize others if we remain silent, 
if we remain numb, if we remain mute, dumb about our own problems?
  I am told that the current gridlock on this issue is because of 
partisanship. I hear that the reason the conference committee on the 
juvenile justice bill has only met once--last August--is that Members 
are at opposite ends of the spectrum on the gun-related provisions in 
the legislation.
  This legislation does not take any dramatic steps toward weapons. It 
simply would put in place some commonsense provisions to balance public 
safety and private gun owners' rights. Requiring trigger locks would 
not jeopardize anyone's second amendment rights, but it might prevent 
children from using the guns at school--where the parents are at fault 
for letting those weapons lie around where they are within the reach, 
within the sight, of children. And improving background checks is not a 
monumental change either. These checks would only serve to prevent 
those people who should not have access to weapons from getting them. I 
hope responsible parents and gun owners will be able to support these 
commonsense provisions.
  So I do not understand why this has to be a partisan issue in the 
U.S. Capitol Building or in the adjacent Senate and House Office 
Buildings when it is not a partisan issue in the rest of the country.
  I note that earlier the Republican Governor of Colorado signed into 
law a new background check initiative that is even more rigorous than 
the one overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Governor Owens 
said this effort is a balance between ``the public's need to try to 
keep firearms out of the hands of criminals with the private right to 
purchase a firearm.'' Let me read what the Governor said again: ``* * * 
the public's need to try to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals 
with the private right to purchase a firearm.'' It is a balance between 
the two. He was talking about a balance between the two.
  If there can be bipartisan legislation in Colorado, why can't there 
be bipartisan legislation here in Congress? Even in this Chamber, 
Senators were able to put partisanship aside when we passed the 
juvenile justice bill last May. The legislation was approved 
overwhelmingly, by a vote of 73-25. Yet the conference committee still 
cannot reach an agreement.
  Is that the problem? The conference committee between the two Houses 
cannot reach an agreement. The time for delay is over. Our Nation is 
yearning for leadership. I express my hope, as one Senator, to the 
conferees to move ahead on the juvenile justice bill. Craft a 
commonsense bill that would help to break this cycle of youth violence. 
Show the Nation that the Congress can see what is happening outside the 
Capitol Building and that we are capable of working in partnership with 
all Americans to bring some modicum of calm to our classrooms.

[[Page 2424]]

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. SCHUMER addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York is recognized.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask to speak for 10 minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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