[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[May 10, 1997]
[Pages 585-586]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
May 10, 1997

    Good morning. This morning I want to talk about the responsibility 
we share to protect our children from the scourge of violent crime and 
especially from crime committed by other young people. We've all worked 
hard over the last 4\1/2\ years to prepare America for the 21st century, 
with opportunity for all, responsibility from all our citizens, and a 
community that includes all Americans. Because of these efforts, 
America's children face a brighter future. Economic growth is the 
highest it's been in a decade. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 24 
years, with over 12 million new jobs. Last Friday we reached an historic 
agreement to finish the job of balancing the budget, to keep our economy 
thriving, with the biggest investment in education in 30 years, tax cuts 
to help pay for a college education for all Americans, and health care 
coverage for 5 million children who have no insurance now.
    But with all these advances, our children cannot live out their 
dreams if they are living in fear of gangs and guns. That's why I have 
worked so hard to reverse the tide of crime. We passed a tough crime 
bill that's putting 100,000 new community police on our street. We 
passed the Brady bill, which has stopped over 186,000 felons, fugitives, 
and stalkers from buying handguns. We banned deadly assault weapons. We 
initiated the biggest antidrug effort ever to make our children's 
schools and streets safe, drug-free, and gun-free.
    This strategy is working. Serious crime has dropped 5 years in a 
row. But sadly, crime among young people has been on the rise. According 
to a report by the Justice Department's juvenile division, unless we act 
now, the number of juveniles arrested for violent crimes will more than 
double by the year 2010. That means we must launch a full-scale assault 
on juvenile crime based on what we know works.
    This February I sent legislation to Congress that would declare war 
on gangs, with new prosecutors and tougher penalties. It would also 
extend the Brady bill so that someone who commits a violent crime as a 
juvenile is barred from buying a gun as an adult. It would require that 
child safety locks be sold with guns to keep children from hurting 
themselves or each other. It would help keep schools open after hours, 
on weekends, and in the summer to keep children off the streets and out 
of trouble.
    This is a tough and balanced approach based on what is actually 
working at the local level. In Boston, where many of these efforts are 
already in place, youth murders have dropped 80 percent in 5 years, and 
not one child has been killed with a gun in over a year and a half.
    Unfortunately, this Thursday the House of Representatives passed the 
juvenile justice bill that falls far short of that promise. The House 
bill is weak on guns, and it walks away from the crime prevention 
initiatives that can save a teenager from a life of crime. And as 
drafted, it would actually only reach a few States with the good it does 
do.
    The House bill does not ensure the new antigang prosecutors we 
desperately need to pursue and punish violent juveniles. It does not 
support efforts such as Boston's Operation Night Life, where police and 
probation officers make nightly visits to the homes of young 
probationers to make sure they live up to the strict rules of their 
probation. The bill does not fund anticrime initiatives to keep our 
schools open later and on weekends so young people can stay under the 
watchful eye of parents, educators, and community leaders instead of on 
street corners where the most common influences are bad ones. We know 
juvenile crime peaks right after the schoolday ends. We've got to engage 
our children during those hours, to steer them away from gangs.
    You know, just a couple of weeks ago, I sponsored the Service Summit 
in Philadelphia, along with all our former Presidents and General Colin 
Powell. The summit was dedicated to giving every young American a chance 
to make

[[Page 586]]

the most of his or her life, enlisting millions and millions of 
volunteers to guarantee children a healthy start, access to basic 
skills, a mentor, a safe environment, and the chance to serve 
themselves. Republicans and Democrats alike applauded this summit. It 
highlighted successful efforts to guarantee children a safe environment.
    Now, this bill the House passed ignores the real spirit of the 
summit, its bipartisanship and its focus on what works. The plain 
evidence of what is working right now to save our children is nowhere 
apparent in this bill. It's the same old tough rhetoric without any 
prevention, without any change in the environment to make it harder for 
gangs to function, or without real toughness in every State in America. 
Perhaps most troubling, the House bill rejects my call to cut off young 
people's access to guns, now the third leading cause of death for young 
people between the ages of 13 and 24. We must begin with the simple 
precaution of child safety locks. It's heartbreaking when a gun owned by 
a law-abiding parent is used by a child to hurt themselves or others. 
According to a National Institute of Justice survey, 185 children died 
in 1994 because of accidental shootings. Now, if we can have safety 
precautions to prevent children from opening bottles of aspirin, surely 
we can have the same safety precautions to prevent children from using 
guns.
    Extending the Brady bill is critical as well. If you commit a 
violent crime as a 17-year-old, you should not be able to buy a gun on 
your 21st birthday. I challenge Congress to pass a real juvenile justice 
bill, one that's tough on gangs and tough on guns and is serious about 
the kind of prevention efforts we know will work.
    To me, a juvenile justice bill that doesn't limit children's access 
to guns is a bill that walks away from the problem. Not a single hunter 
would lose a gun because of child safety locks. Not a single law-abiding 
citizen would be denied a gun if we extend the Brady bill to those with 
violent juvenile records. But countless young lives would be saved if 
stolen guns became useless guns and if lawless juveniles became gunless 
adults.
    If Congress really wants to get tough on juvenile crime, then it's 
time to get tough on guns and take them out of the hands of violent 
juveniles. We've come a long way in the last 4\1/2\ years. But to really 
make sure we prepare our children for the 21st century, we have got to 
give them a safe and orderly environment where they can make the most of 
their future and of the world they will soon inherit.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 2:50 p.m. on May 9 aboard Air Force 
One for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 10.