    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 3, 1996]
    [Pages 1745-1747]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1745]]

    Remarks on Signing the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act
    of 1996
    October 3, 1996

        Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Attorney
    General Reno; Secretary Rubin; Secretary Shalala; General McCaffrey; OMB
    Director Frank Raines; Under Secretary Kelly; our ATF Director, John
    Magaw; Bonnie Campbell; Bob Scully and the board members of NAPO; to the
    families who are here represented that were mentioned by the Attorney
    General who have paid such a great price to serve our country in law
    enforcement. To the Members of Congress who are here who supported this
    action in a completely bipartisan way, I thank you for being here:
    Senator Biden, Senator Graham, Senator Feinstein, Senator John Kerry,
    Senator Reid, Senator Specter, Senator Wellstone, Congressman Conyers,
    Congressman Fazio, Congressman Fox, Congressman Frost, Congressman
    Luther, Congressman Studds. I thank you all for your active support of
    these initiatives and for your presence here today.
        I would like to begin by saluting the brave men and women who are in
    law enforcement in the United States. Before this ceremony, I had the
    honor of meeting and presenting the annual Top Cop award to 25 law
    enforcement officials from around the country who have displayed
    heroism, devotion to duty, and service to their communities that is
    truly extraordinary. That service is also on display in every community
    every day. Our police are at the center of our strategy as a nation for
    fighting crime, and today I think every American should give them
    thanks. So I would like to ask all of you to recognize those who have
    been awarded the Top Cop award behind us. [Applause]
        I would also like to say again a special word of thanks to Richard
    Hagerman and Donna Whitson, to the O'Hara and Alu families, and to Karen
    Degan and her family for their remarkable work to prove that
    representative government can still represent, can still actually
    respond to the legitimate needs and concerns of the citizens of this
    country.
        This is a good day for America because we have seen a change in the
    attitudes of our people, the actions of communities, and the work in
    Washington on the problem of crime. Today, after years and years of
    talking about the crime problem, we can actually see that we can say
    with a clear heart and a clear mind and absolute conviction to the
    American people, ``There is something you can do about crime.'' We are
    getting results, and today we mark the passage of three more laws that
    further advance our anticrime strategy.
        Four years ago, we put in place an anticrime strategy that was both
    tough and smart. It was eventually embodied in the 1994 crime bill. It
    has been behind all of our actions over the last 3\1/2\ years. We are on
    track to putting 100,000 new community police officers on the street,
    people who work with their neighbors to catch criminals, close crack
    houses, who work with citizens groups, which we have also supported, to
    prevent crime before it happens.
        I am pleased that the budget bill I signed on Monday evening will
    keep moving forward on our promise to finish putting 100,000 police on
    the street. We have toughened penalties, made ``three strikes and you're
    out'' the law of the land, expanded the death penalty, said to drug
    dealers who prey on public housing, ``One criminal conviction and you
    are out of public housing.'' We have said to sexual predators, ``The law
    will follow you wherever you go,'' and we are working to establish a
    national registry for sexual predators to make absolutely sure that that
    is exactly what happens. We are taking guns off the street, banning 19
    deadly assault weapons, passing the Brady bill.
        And we are giving our young people some things to say yes to as
    well: expanded antidrug programs in our schools, encouragement to
    communities to enforce truancy laws, impose community curfews, introduce
    policies like school uniforms. All of these things will work to give our
    children a stronger sense of right and wrong and a greater capacity to
    do what is right.
        This strategy, of course, is not ours alone. In fact, I would say to
    all those here--especially to you, Senator Biden, who helped us write
    the crime bill of 1994--what we have done in Washington is a reflection
    of what we have heard from the energy, the determination, and the
    activities of thousands and thousands of citizens

    [[Page 1746]]

    and law enforcement officials all across this country where our police
    are taking back their streets, enlisting the active support of community
    watch groups, of parents, of businesses.
        For 4 years in a row now, crime has come down in America. Murders
    are down; rapes are down; robberies are down; drug use is down. The
    rising tide of juvenile violence, which seemed poised to upend our
    progress, has finally begun to recede. There are one million fewer crime
    victims today than there were a year ago. Now we must press on. We must
    build on this strategy of putting more police on the street and taking
    criminals, drugs, and guns off the street. That is what these measures
    we mark today do.
        First, earlier this week, Congress answered my call to expand on the
    proven success of the Brady bill. When our police officers and crime
    victims were advocating the passage of the Brady bill and the assault
    weapons ban, those who opposed them told the Nation's hunters that
    Congress would take their guns away. Well, now we know. After 2 years,
    not a single hunter has been denied a weapon, but 60,000 felons,
    fugitives, and stalkers have been denied guns because of the Brady bill.
    It was plainly the right thing to do. It has worked.
        Until now, the Brady bill has worked to bar felons from buying guns,
    handguns. Thousands of people, however, who are wifebeaters or child
    abusers, even those who have wielded weapons in their assaults, could
    still buy handguns with potentially deadly consequences. There is no
    more harmful type of violence than this.
        In August, I asked Congress to pass an extension of the Brady bill
    to deny handguns to anyone convicted of domestic violence. I am pleased
    that the Congress enacted this important domestic violence law as part
    of the budget bill. It is a very fitting way to begin Domestic Violence
    Awareness Month, which I am proclaiming today. Now, with a strong voice,
    America says: If you are convicted of a felony you should not have a
    gun. If you are a fugitive from the law, you should not have a gun. If
    you are stalking or harassing women or children, you should not have a
    gun. And if you raise--and commit an act of violence against your spouse
    or your child, you should not have a gun. That is now the law of the
    land.
        Second, I am very pleased that in the budget bill Congress passed,
    more was done to help break the cycle of crime and drugs. Drug dealers
    with guns and criminals on drugs are central to our crime problem. Up to
    two-thirds of the adults arrested for felonies today have substance
    abuse problems. When criminals go on parole and then they go back on
    drugs, chances are very high that they will commit new crimes. Now,
    listen to this--I couldn't believe it when I learned this--60 percent--
    60 percent--of the heroin and cocaine sold in our country is purchased
    by people on bail, on probation, or on parole. Seventy-five percent of
    the prisoners with a history of heroin or cocaine use are released
    without treatment, to go back on drugs within 3 months and back to the
    cycle of crime and drugs.
        Today, States often do not do much to drug test prisoners or
    parolees or take action to break them of their habit. Last month, I
    proposed legislation to do something about that. It requires States
    receiving Federal prison funds to develop comprehensive drug testing and
    treatment programs for prisoners and parolees. And I am very, very
    pleased that the Congress passed this legislation. We say to inmates, if
    you stay on drugs, you have to stay in jail. We say to parolees, if you
    go back on drugs, then you have to go back to jail. If you want to stay
    on the street, stay off drugs.
        I have asked the Attorney General to issue preliminary guidelines
    for the States to help them comply with this new law by the end of this
    year. I am pleased we are not wasting any time.
        And again let me thank the Congress for their prompt action on this
    problem. This has the potential to make a huge difference in the crime
    problem in America, as well as to liberate a lot of people from a drug
    abuse habit and enable them to go back to being responsible citizens
    instead of just being in a revolving door, in and out of prison all
    their lives.
        Finally, I'm pleased that Congress has passed important antidrug
    legislation that I submitted last spring to deal with methamphetamine.
    Methamphetamine is a deadly drug that unfortunately is gaining
    popularity. In 2 years, deaths from this drug have doubled. Currently
    isolated in geographic pockets, its use now threatens to spread
    nationwide.
        With this legislation we increase penalties for trafficking in meth,
    toughen the penalties for trafficking in those chemicals used to produce
    meth, and give the Justice Department authority to regulate and seize
    those chemicals. I am par-

    [[Page 1747]]

    ticularly pleased that we are acting before this epidemic spreads. And I
    thank General McCaffrey and Attorney General Reno for their urgency in
    this matter. We have to stop meth before it becomes the crack of the
    1990's, and this legislation gives us a chance to do it.
        Again, let me say to General McCaffrey a thank-you for your work and
    for holding two national forums on methamphetamine, one with Senator
    Feinstein in southern California and one with Senator Kerrey in
    Nebraska, over the next few months.
        All of these new laws will help us fight crime, but we must
    recognize that more police and tougher penalties cannot fight crime
    alone. Parents have to teach their children to stay away from drugs and
    out of gangs and violence. Clergy, business people, educators, all must
    do their part. We need more citizens out there patrolling the streets,
    and we are trying to generate another million volunteers to help because
    we know that these citizen patrols have dramatically reduced crime when
    they are working with police officers. And all of our young people must
    decide to assume more personal responsibility to stay off drugs, out of
    gangs, and away from jail and within the law.
        As of today, if you commit an act of violence against your spouse or
    child, you can't purchase a gun. If you violate your parole and use
    drugs, you must go back to jail. If you traffic in meth, you must pay a
    stiff penalty. We are safer because of these actions.
        Again, I thank the Congress. And I'm pleased to sign the
    legislation, and I'd like to ask the Members who are here and the law
    enforcement officers to come up and be with me.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:23 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Bonnie Campbell, Director, Office
    of Violence Against Women, Department of Justice; Robert T. Scully,
    executive director, National Association of Police Organizations; and
    anticrime legislation advocates Richard Hagerman, Donna Whitson, Joseph
    Alu, Jr., Jim O'Hara, and Karen Degan. S. 1965, approved October 3, was
    assigned Public Law No. 104-237. Earlier in the day, the President
    signed the following additional anticrime legislation: the Child Abuse
    Prevention and Treatment Act Amendments of 1996 (S. 919, Public Law No.
    104-235); the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification
    Act of 1996 (S. 1675, Public Law No. 104-236); and the Federal Law
    Enforcement Dependents Assistance Act of 1996 (S. 2101, Public Law No.
    104-238). The National Domestic Violence Awareness Month proclamation is
    listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.