    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [August 20, 1994]
    [Pages 1486-1487]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1486]]

    The President's Radio Address
    August 20, 1994

        Good morning. This morning I want to talk with you about crime and
    violence. All of us know it's too familiar a threat to Americans in
    almost every neighborhood in our country.
        Right now, just as I'm delivering this address, the family, friends,
    and neighbors of a 13-year-old boy are gathered in a church not far from
    the White House to lay him to rest. His name was Anthony Stokes. He was
    shot last Saturday night apparently by another boy about the same age.
        Later this morning, as Anthony Stokes' family buries him, House and
    Senate negotiators will meet to finish work on the crime bill. Soon
    after, each Member of the House of Representatives will face a simple
    choice, to pass the toughest attack on crime in history or to block it
    one more time. We must not walk away from the American people in the
    fight against crime.
        Anthony Stokes was killed just 2 days after Congress succumbed to
    intense political pressure and allowed the crime bill to be derailed. We
    fought hard over the last 10 days to get it back on track. And it is
    back on track because Members of Congress of both parties have worked
    together in good faith, determined to deliver a crime bill for the
    American people.
        Now Congress must finish the job and pass the crime bill I've been
    fighting for for nearly 2 years now. When they do, it's going to make a
    difference in every town, every city, every State in our country.
        It's a tough bill. It'll put 100,000 new police officers on our
    street, a 20 percent increase in the number of officers walking the
    beat, protecting our neighborhoods, and preventing crime as well as
    catching criminals. It will shut down the revolving door on our prisons
    and make violent criminals serve their time. Police officers and law-
    abiding citizens should no longer have to watch in fear and frustration
    as dangerous criminals are put right back on the street. It will stiffen
    penalties for criminals who prey on children. It will protect
    unsuspecting families from sexual predators in their communities by
    requiring local authorities to alert them to their presence. It will
    lock the most dangerous criminals up for good by making ``three strikes
    and you're out'' the law of the land.
        But this crime bill is smart as well as tough, because our approach
    recognizes what the law enforcement community has been saying for years
    and years. There isn't a single victim of crime who wouldn't trade the
    toughest sentence in the world for some way to have prevented the crime
    from happening in the first place.
        That's why this bill includes an unprecedented effort in crime
    prevention, to help kids stay away from crime and drugs and gangs. It
    gives them something to say yes to. At the same time, we make it clear
    there are some things young people must say no to. The crime bill bans
    juvenile ownership of handguns. There's no reason why kids should be
    carrying guns to schools instead of books.
        Finally, it bans deadly assault weapons that were designed to be
    used in war for rapid-fire combat. Today they are the weapons of choice
    for gangs and drug dealers who use them to outgun police officers and to
    kill innocent people. They don't belong on our streets, and the crime
    bill will take them off.
        And the entire crime bill will be paid for--and this is important--
    not with a new tax, not by taking money away from some other needed
    service but by reducing the size of the Federal bureaucracy to its
    lowest level in 30 years.
        This crime bill answers the call of every parent afraid that random
    violence will harm a child, of every police officer who's been hurt or
    killed by the terrible fire power of an assault weapon, of every
    innocent, law-abiding man, woman, and child in America. The crime bill
    offers this pledge: From now on, our Government will do everything we
    can to make sure that people who commit crimes get caught, that those
    who are guilty are convicted, that those who are convicted serve their
    times, that those who can be saved from a life of crime are found when
    they're young and given a chance to do better.
        For all these reasons, and for a young man named Anthony Stokes
    who's being laid to rest today, we must not let this chance pass us by.
    We must seize the opportunity before us to make a dramatic difference in
    every neighborhood. And as we do, I hope we can make a difference in the
    way our Government works.

    [[Page 1487]]

        Let today mark the beginning of a determined effort on the part of
    all of us to work in good faith across party lines. I have shown my good
    faith, and in so doing I have taken the risk that all people take when
    they talk to people who have opposed them.
        Soon the Congress will have a chance to show the risk was worth it.
    And once they pass the crime bill, the way will be clear for us to
    attack other problems together, across party lines, as the American
    people want us to do and as we should.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
    White House.