[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 18 (Monday, May 9, 1994)]
[Pages 984-985]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Housing and Urban Development Department Crime Briefing

May 4, 1994

    Thank you very much, Secretary Cisneros, ladies and gentlemen. I am 
delighted to see you here, and I know what you've been here talking 
about.
    I just want to make sure that you know when you heard from the Vice 
President and then Secretary Cisneros, that you were looking at two of 
People magazine's 50 most beautiful people of the year. [Laughter] Some 
of us resent that. All I can tell you is that I hope to live to see both 
of them become President of the United States--[laughter]--because they 
would not only be outstanding Presidents, they would quickly lose any 
eligibility for that title.
    I want to thank you for many things; first, for working with 
Secretary Cisneros and the people of HUD to deal with the problem of 
safety in public housing. And especially, I want to thank my good friend 
Vince Lane and the other folks in Chicago who tried to help us work 
through this court decision so that the people who live in these units 
would still have the right to be protected from a level of crime and 
violence that many Americans would find it impossible even to imagine.
    I also want to ask you--everyone who is here today and everybody 
who's associated with public housing and every law enforcement officer 
who is here and all those whom you represent--to call every Member of 
Congress in the next 24 hours and ask them to vote on this assault 
weapons ban for law enforcement. This is an amazing conflict. It is a 
conflict that pits, on opposite sides, people that ought not to be on 
opposite sides.
    People who are concerned with law enforcement and public safety and 
people who know about it and live it are overwhelmingly in favor of this 
assault weapons ban. They are being told by people who represent the 
folks who are against this that they really don't understand, that 
they're not in any more danger from these assault weapons than they 
would be from a hunting rifle. I find that amazing that any American, 
after what we have been through on our streets and in our schools in the 
last few years, could stand up and look into the eyes of the law 
enforcement community of America and tell them, ``You don't know that 
your life's in more danger.'' I don't see how they could say it, looking 
into the statistics of what the emergency rooms of this country have 
faced in the last 10 or 15 years. If you want to talk about it just 
crassly, just go back and look at the statistics on gunshot victims 
outside the home in emergency rooms in major cities in the last 10 
years, and look what the average number of bullets you find in the 
bodies of people who show up are.
    And so I understand this is a tough political vote for the House of 
Representatives, and I know we started way behind. And I know that as 
late as yesterday, I was still talking through with Members actually 
what is in the bill. A lot of people didn't know, for example, that the 
bill grandfathers the possession of these weapons on the part of 
sportsmen who like to shoot a couple of them at the ranges in contests. 
Well, they can keep those weapons operating for decades if they take 
good care of them, literally decades. But people who use them on the 
street in crimes and gangs, they won't take as good care of them. A lot 
of them will be washed up; we'll get them out of the system much more 
quickly. But the people who have them will not lose them now by law.
    I still find that we've got--a lot of the problems we've got with 
this bill are literally making sure that everybody knows everything 
that's in it. But the big problem is the political fight. And I just 
would implore you

[[Page 985]]

to call everybody you can. They say we haven't got any chance to win, 
but they already admit we've made up 50 votes over where we were last 
time this thing was voted on. And I think we do have a chance if every 
law enforcement officer who knows every Member of Congress would call 
those people and say, ``This is not a partisan issue. This is a question 
of law enforcement and safety for Americans and sensible policy. And 
don't you believe those people who tell you that we don't know what 
we're talking about. We are on the receiving end of these bullets, and 
we can count, thank you very much. We do understand the difference 
between being shot at with a revolver and something with 12 rounds, 15 
rounds, 30 rounds, or 60 rounds. We can count.''
    And I believe if you can make it just that simple, then it is our 
job to answer all the factual questions that we are being asked by 
people from rural districts, who in good conscience have to be able to 
answer these questions to the sportsmen in their districts. We can 
answer those questions to their satisfaction if you will lay the hammer 
down and say, this is about standing with law enforcement and children 
and safety and the future. We are beginning to put some sanity back into 
our laws, and the American people are beginning to demand that we have 
greater safety in our homes, on our streets, in our schools.
    This crime bill's got a lot of good things in it. It's going to ban 
possession of all handguns by minors, except under controlled 
circumstances with approved supervision. It's going to give us the money 
we need to provide security, metal detectors and other things, in 
schools. It's going to put more police officers on the street. It's got 
a lot of good things. But we ought not to walk away from this. We ought 
to put it in. It's right for law enforcement.
    And if you guys will do this--if the men and women of law 
enforcement in America will call the Congress in the next 24 hours and 
say, ``Do this one for us, and don't believe all those people telling 
you that we don't know our own best interest and we don't really know 
what's good for people on our streets. We do. We have been on the wrong 
end of those weapons, and we know we'll be better off without having to 
look down those barrels anymore. Help us. Help us. Stand up for law 
enforcement. Stand up for safety. Stand up for the kids of this 
country''--we've still got a chance to win this thing, and we need your 
help. Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:20 p.m. in the Indian Treaty Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Vince Lane, chairman, 
Chicago Housing Authority. A tape was not available for verification of 
the content of these remarks.