[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7266-7267]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  SELF-DEFENSE AND RIGHT-TO-CARRY LAWS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, after the speech by my colleague, I think 
it is useful to perhaps tone down the rhetoric and bring some 
statistics and some information from Dr. John Lott, a distinguished 
scholar at the Yale University Law School, and talk about experts on 
crime and what they have to say.
  Mr. Speaker, I have an article from the Washington Times that is 
dated April 26 that I will make a part of the Record wherein Dr. Lott 
highlights a number of cases in his article detailing how anti-gun 
advocates routinely admit facts, figures, and they change statistics to 
generally develop a misinterpretation of gun ownership in America.
  Along with Dr. Lott, a Professor Bill Landes from the University of 
Chicago has done extensive research on waiting periods, sentencing 
laws, background checks, and other current gun control laws and they 
compare those with the effect on deterring so-called ``rampage 
killings.'' As to their conclusions, Mr. Speaker, I will quote directly 
from their article:
  ``While higher arrests and conviction rates, longer prison sentences 
and the death penalty reduce murders generally, neither these measures 
nor restrictive gun laws had a discernible impact on mass public 
shootings. We found only one policy that effectively reduces these 
attacks: The passage of right-to-carry laws.''
  Both these professors confirm that law-abiding citizens, possessing a 
legal right to carry concealed hand guns, had a dramatic impact on 
multiple victim shootings.

                              {time}  0945

  Indeed, these laws, on average, decreased multiple-victim shootings 
by one-fifth.
  Now, in my home State of Florida, they recognized this fact. In 1987, 
they passed a law to allow law-abiding citizens to carry a licensed, 
concealed weapon.
  What were the results? Florida's homicide rate dropped from 37 
percent above the national average to 3 percent below the national 
average. The decrease in violent offenses involving firearms in Florida 
continues to decline.
  Now, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Uniform 
Crime Report, in 1989, firearms accounted for 30 percent of all violent 
offenses. Last year, firearms only accounted for 20 percent of all 
violent offenses.
  Mr. Speaker, 31 States today now have right-to-carry laws and have 
experienced similar results like Florida.
  Dr. Lott's article further highlights the need for individual 
Americans to be able to defend themselves outside their home.
  To address this issue, I developed and introduced legislation, H.R. 
492, which is identical to my bill in the 105th Congress which was 
debated in the House Committee on the Judiciary. My bill establishes a 
national standard providing for reciprocity in regard to the manner in 
which nonresidents of a State may carry certain concealed firearms into 
the State.
  Now, in order to carry a concealed firearm across State lines, a 
person would have to be properly licensed for carrying a concealed 
weapon in his home State and would have to obey the concealed weapon 
laws of that State they are entering.
  If the State they are entering does not have a concealed weapons law, 
the national standard provision in this legislation would dictate the 
rules in which a concealed weapon would have to be maintained. For 
instance, the national standard would disallow the carrying of a 
concealed weapon in a school, police station, or a bar serving 
alcoholic beverages.
  My bill also exempts qualified former and current law enforcement 
officers from State laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed 
handguns. Now, this language was adopted during debate on the juvenile 
justice bill last year.
  Mr. Speaker, right-to-carry laws are an effective deterrent to these 
mass killings and random murders. States which have adopted such laws, 
on the average, have 24 percent less violent crime, 19 percent less 
homicides, and 39 percent less robberies. These are precisely the type 
of statistics which gun control supporters refuse to acknowledge.
  Yesterday, the President stated that he is ``subdued, frustrated, and 
very saddened'' as he reflected on the lack of pending gun control 
legislation in Congress.
  Mr. President, we, too, are frustrated, frustrated that those who 
seek

[[Page 7267]]

to curb gun violence refuse to acknowledge the one effective deterrent, 
the right to carry.
  So, as I stated earlier, the right-to-carry defense should not be 
confined to State boundaries. A law-abiding citizen legally carrying a 
concealed firearm in his or her State should be entitled to the same 
protection in any State.
  I urge my colleagues to support my bill.

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