[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 50 (Monday, December 20, 1993)]
[Pages 2567-2569]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address December 11, 1993

    Good morning. This morning I want to talk to you about crime and 
violence and what we can all do about it.
    On Tuesday evening in Garden City, New York, a gunman shot and 
killed 5 rush-hour commuters on the Long Island Railroad and wounded 20 
others. On Thursday night in

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California, there was a memorial service for 12-year-old Polly Klaas. 
She'd been kidnaped from her bedroom 2 months ago. Her little body was 
found last Saturday.
    These tragedies are part of the epidemic of violence that has left 
Americans insecure on our streets, in our schools, even in our homes. 
The crime rate has hit every American community from our oldest cities 
to our smallest towns to our newest suburbs. As a suburban California 
woman, the mother of a 10-year-old girl, said a few days ago, ``There's 
no safe place to go. There's no place that's safe.''
    If our Nation is to find any meaning in these tragedies, we must 
join together to end this epidemic of violent crime and restore the 
fabric of civilized life in every community. There is now some hope 
amidst the horror because decent people are fighting back against crime.
    Just before Thanksgiving I signed the Brady bill into law. It 
requires a 5-day waiting period before anyone can purchase a handgun so 
there can be a check of someone's age, mental health, and criminal 
record. The Brady bill became law because you, the American people, were 
stronger than the gun lobby.
    On Thursday, together with Attorney General Janet Reno, FBI Director 
Louis Freeh, and Drug Policy Coordinator Lee Brown, I met with mayors 
and police chiefs from 35 cities. They told me they need more police on 
the streets, a ban on assault weapons, and action to keep drugs and guns 
away from vulnerable young people. And I intend to give the folks on the 
front lines the resources and the support they need to win the fight 
against crime.
    I call upon Congress when they return in January to pass promptly a 
strong crime bill that will put 100,000 more police officers on the 
street, prohibit assault weapons, and provide fundings for more boot 
camps for first-time offenders.
    I want to put 100,000 new police officers on the streets of our 
communities so they can walk their beats and work with neighborhood 
people. Putting more police on the streets will do more to reduce crime 
than anything else we can do.
    The ban on assault weapons and the restrictions on semiautomatics 
are important because they'll stop criminal gangs from being better 
armed than the police. And these restrictions would have prevented the 
gunman on the Long Island Railroad from having two 15-round clips of 
ammunition that enabled him to maim and kill so many people with such 
deadly speed. Assault weapons and 15-round clips have nothing to do with 
hunting or sports. They just let criminals shoot people more quickly. A 
recent study in one of our major cities showed that the increasing death 
rate among young people hit with gunshots was due almost entirely to the 
fact that the weapons themselves were more likely to be semiautomatic 
and therefore more deadly.
    Boot camps have been endorsed by every major law enforcement 
organization in America. They give first offenders a second chance to 
learn some discipline. And they open more space in the prisons for 
hardened, violent criminals.
    Now that Congress is home for the holidays, tell your Senators and 
Representatives to pass a strong crime bill so your family can be safer. 
You know, the new year begins just 3 weeks from today. I'd like to 
suggest a New Year's resolution for every Senator and every 
Representative: Let's pass the crime bill as soon as you return.
    There's so much more we're doing and more we need to do. Under the 
leadership of Dr. Lee Brown, our Drug Policy Director and the father of 
community policing, we're strengthening enforcement and prevention. 
We're increasing the focus on hardcore users who fuel the crime and 
violence and the tragic waste of human lives.
    Next summer in our national service program, AmeriCorps, thousands 
of young people will help with community policing, escort older people, 
and board up abandoned buildings so they can't be turned into crack 
houses. The young people in the Summer of Safety will be an inspiring 
example for Americans of all ages to work together to make our streets 
safer by acting on our finest values.

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    Let's face it, drugs and guns and violence fill a vacuum where the 
values of civilized life used to be. Work and family and community are 
the principles, the institutions, upon which the great majority of 
Americans are building their lives. We need to restore them and the 
sense of hope and discipline that will give every man and woman, every 
boy and girl the opportunity to become the people God intended them to 
be.
    In recent weeks, I've spoken to leaders from the religious community 
and the entertainment community about the obligation we all share to 
fight violence with values. Last week I was proud to hear that the Inner 
City Broadcasting Corporation of New York, which owns five radio 
stations throughout the country, will no longer play songs that advocate 
violence or show contempt for women. And I understand that two stations 
in Los Angeles, KACE, owned by former Green Bay Packer Willie Davis, and 
KJLH, owned by Stevie Wonder, have also adopted this policy. Whether 
we're ministers or moviemakers, business people or broadcasters, 
teachers or parents, we can all set our sons and daughters on a better 
path in life so they can learn and love and lead decent and productive 
lives.
    In this holiday season, as we rejoice in the love of our families 
and hold our children a little closer, we should also strengthen the 
bonds of community. We can make our neighborhoods and our nations places 
of shared responsibility, not random violence. The tragedies of this 
week remind us that there is no place to hide. The lessons of our 
history remind us that Americans can accomplish anything when we work 
together for a common purpose.
    As we begin this season of celebration and rededication, let's 
remember the words of Theodore Roosevelt, a great President who was once 
a police commissioner too: ``This country will not be a good place for 
any of us to live in, unless we make it a good place for all of us to 
live in.''
    Thanks for listening, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the 
White House.