    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 15, 1997]
    [Pages 1576-1577]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    November 15, 1997

        Good morning. Today I want to talk about the progress we're making
    in our fight against crime and the steps we're taking to build on that
    progress. All over our country, crime is dropping. Responsibility and
    respect for the law are on the rise. But the true measure of our
    progress is whether our children can play in their front yards, whether
    they can walk to school in safety, whether our parents can unlock their
    front doors, whether our grandparents can walk down the streets with
    confidence, free from the fear of violence.
        To give our families that security, we've put in place a
    comprehensive plan to bring the crime rate down with 100,000 new
    community police officers, tougher punishment, stronger antigang
    prevention, the Brady bill. And we've led an unprecedented effort to
    join the forces of national, State, and local law enforcement to fight
    crime in every community in America.
        In the 3 years since I signed the crime bill into law, we know our
    strategy is having a real, measurable impact. Crime has dropped now for
    a record 5 years in a row. Today we have even

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    more dramatic proof of our progress, the Annual National Crime
    Victimization Survey. It says that in 1996, crime rates fell to their
    lowest recorded level in nearly 25 years. Property crime is down.
    Violent crime is down. Since 1993, murder has dropped by 22 percent, 10
    percent in 1996 alone. This remarkable drop in the crime rate is no
    accident. The hard work of people from Washington to every community in
    the country made it happen.
        Community policing is at the center of this success. In only 3
    years, we've already funded 65,000 new police officers under the crime
    bill, and we're close to meeting our goal of putting 100,000 new police
    officers on our streets.
        Our Nation's police officers will tell you that our ongoing effort
    to ban lethal assault weapons has also been critical to their ability to
    do a better job. We've banned these guns because you don't need an Uzi
    to go deer hunting, and everyone knows it.
        But as effective as the assault weapons ban has been, we know that
    some foreign gun manufacturers are getting around the ban by making
    minor modifications to their weapons that amount to nothing more than
    cosmetic surgery. Well, we didn't fight as hard as we have to pass the
    assault weapons in the first place only to let a few gun manufacturers
    sidestep our laws and undermine our progress. Assault weapons in the
    hands of civilians exist for no reason but to inspire fear and wreak
    deadly havoc on our streets. They don't belong on our streets or in our
    schoolyards, and they shouldn't be aimed at our children. That's why we
    banned them 3 years ago and why we're taking action today.
        Effective immediately, the Secretary of the Treasury is suspending
    the importation of all modified assault weapons for 120 days while we
    study whether they can be permanently blocked from our borders and
    banned from our streets. We must continue to do everything we can to
    crack down on illegal firearms and the organized criminals, terrorists,
    and drug lords who seek them. Yesterday President Zedillo of Mexico and
    I signed an unprecedented international convention to help fight illegal
    gun trafficking in our own hemisphere and to strengthen law
    enforcement's ability to combat this deadly trade.
        Working together over the last 5 years, we've proven that we can
    drive down the crime rate. Now we have to press on, confident that we
    can take our streets back from crime, take assault weapons and illegal
    firearms out of the hands of criminals, enact a tough but smart juvenile
    justice bill, and eventually give our families and our children the real
    security they deserve.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 7:30 p.m. on November 14 in the
    Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on
    November 15.