[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 1995)]
[Pages 809-810]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting the ``Gun-Free School Zones 
Amendments Act of 1995''

May 10, 1995

To the Congress of the United States:

    Today I am transmitting for your immediate consideration and passage 
the ``Gun-Free School Zones Amendments Act of 1995.'' This Act will 
provide the jurisdictional element for the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 
1990 required by the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. 
Lopez.
    In a 5-4 decision, the Court in Lopez held that the Congress had 
exceeded its authority under the Commerce Clause by enacting the Gun-
Free School Zones Act of 1990, codified at 18 U.S.C. 922(q). The Court 
found that this Act did not contain the jurisdictional element that 
would ensure that the firearms possession in question has the requisite 
nexus with interstate commerce.
    In the wake of that decision, I directed Attorney General Reno to 
present to me an analysis of Lopez and to recommend a legislative 
solution to the problem identified by that decision. Her legislative 
recommendation is presented in this proposal.
    The legislative proposal would amend the Gun-Free School Zones Act 
by adding the requirement that the Government prove that the firearm has 
``moved in or the possession of such firearm otherwise affects 
interstate or foreign commerce.''
    The addition of this jurisdictional element would limit the Act's 
``reach to a discrete set of firearm possessions that additionally have 
an explicit connection with or effect on interstate commerce,'' as the 
Court stated in Lopez, and thereby bring it within the Congress' 
Commerce Clause authority.
    The Attorney General reported to me that this proposal would have 
little, if any, impact

[[Page 810]]

on the ability of prosecutors to charge this offense, for the vast 
majority of firearms have ``moved in . . . commerce'' before reaching 
their eventual possessor.
    Furthermore, by also including the possibility of proving the 
offense by showing that the possession of the firearm ``otherwise 
affects interstate or foreign commerce,'' this proposal would leave open 
the possibility of showing, under the facts of a particular case, that 
although the firearm itself may not have ``moved in . . . interstate or 
foreign commerce,'' its possession nonetheless has a sufficient nexus to 
commerce.
    The Attorney General has advised that this proposal does not require 
the Government to prove that a defendant had knowledge that the firearm 
`` has moved in or the possession of such firearm otherwise affects 
interstate or foreign commerce.'' The defendant must know only that he 
or she possesses the firearm.
    I am committed to doing everything in my power to make schools 
places where young people can be secure, where they can learn, and where 
parents can be confident that discipline is enforced.
    I pledge that the Administration will do our part to help make our 
schools safe and the neighborhoods around them safe. We are prepared to 
work immediately with the Congress to enact this legislation. I urge the 
prompt and favorable consideration of this legislative proposal by the 
Congress.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
May 10, 1995.