[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.