[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
[July 19, 1997]
[Pages 983-985]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
July 19, 1997

    Good morning. Today I want to talk about the important progress 
we're making in our efforts to get guns out of the hands of violent 
juveniles.
    Our administration has put in place a tough, smart anticrime 
strategy, relying on more community police, stricter punishment, and 
better afterschool prevention efforts. This strategy is

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working. For 5 years in a row, we've seen serious crime drop nationwide. 
Last year, we saw the largest one-year decline in violent crime and 
murder in 35 years. Our most recent figures even show a slight decline 
in juvenile crime. But we all know that juvenile crime and violence are 
still significant problems in our country. We know that children are 
still killing children for shoes, for jackets, for turf. We know that 
too many of our young people are drawn to guns and violence as a way of 
life.
    One fact stands out and demands our attention. Over the past 
decades, the number of gun murders by juveniles has skyrocketed by 300 
percent. This is simply unacceptable. We know we must break this deadly 
trend. Some of our cities are beginning to do it. In Boston, thanks to a 
comprehensive effort by prosecutors, police, probation officers, 
community leaders, and ordinary citizens, not a single juvenile murder 
has been committed with a gun in 2 full years. Boston police 
commissioner Paul Evans should be commended for his leadership role in 
this outstanding effort, and I'm very glad that he's joined me here 
today.
    A year ago, I looked at Boston's approach, and it was clear that 
tracing guns seized from young criminals was a key to the city's 
success. So I directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to 
launch a national initiative in 17 cities to replicate Boston's effort 
and trace all the guns used in crimes. A year later, the first results 
are in. Police departments in these 17 cities submitted for tracing 
nearly twice as many guns used in crimes as they did the year before. We 
found that almost half of all guns used in crimes came from young 
people. More importantly, for the first time, we know where the 
juveniles are getting these guns, how they are getting them, and what 
kinds of guns they are using.
    One crucial fact is now clear, that guns are finding their way 
quickly from legitimate retail stores to black markets through a network 
of gun traffickers and corrupt gun dealers. Make no mistake: Gun 
traffickers are funneling guns to lawless youth. We know how they 
operate, and we intend to shut them down.
    In Milwaukee, thanks to our youth gun-tracing initiative, police 
officers were able to find a pattern. Several guns used in drive-by 
shootings and armed robberies had originally been purchased by one man, 
a security guard named Larry Shikes. Police investigators quickly 
discovered that Shikes was selling brand new semiautomatic weapons from 
the trunk of his car. Police swept in and arrested him in April. He pled 
guilty to trafficking charges, and he will be sentenced next month.
    Our youth gun-tracing initiative has been so effective that I'm 
pleased to announce we will expand our efforts to 10 more cities, 
including Philadelphia and Los Angeles. I want to thank the ATF and all 
the people who have worked on this initiative, especially Under 
Secretary of Treasury Ray Kelly, who is also with me today. We will work 
with Congress to hire more ATF agents to work with local police officers 
and prosecutors to pursue traffickers based on the leads we're 
generating now every day.
    We also have a chance to build on our progress by passing a smart, 
tough juvenile justice bill that cracks down on guns and gangs. We need 
to provide for more prosecutors, tougher penalties, and better 
afterschool gang prevention programs. We should require that every new 
gun sold in America has a child safety lock. And we should prohibit 
violent teenagers from buying guns once they become adults.
    Last week, I was disappointed that a Senate committee considering a 
juvenile crime bill voted against requiring Federal firearms dealers to 
provide child safety locks. I urge the full Senate to reconsider this 
action.
    A juvenile crime bill must be comprehensive. Of course, it must get 
tough on violent juvenile offenders, but it also must cut off their 
access to guns. That's one big reason why Boston's program works. To 
keep guns away from crime-committing youth, we must also continue to 
perform background checks on gun-buying adults. The Brady law has 
already stopped more than 250,000 fugitives, felons, and stalkers from 
buying handguns. The Supreme Court recently struck down a portion of the 
Brady law that requires local officials to perform these checks. But in 
a meeting this week with law enforcement officials from around the 
country, Attorney General Reno and Treasury Secretary Rubin confirmed 
that the overwhelming majority of police departments are continuing to 
do the responsible thing, to perform these background checks voluntarily 
because they work.
    Now that we're making every effort to keep criminals from getting 
guns through the front door of a gun shop, we're turning our attention 
to locking the back door, too. We have started to crack the code of the 
black market in illegal

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weapons. We are tracing the guns, targeting the traffickers, taking more 
of our children out of harm's way. Cities like Boston have shown us 
great results. And if we'll all work together, there is no reason why 
every community in America can't expect and achieve the same success.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 7:48 p.m. on July 18 in the Roosevelt 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on July 19.