    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 30 (Monday, July 28, 1997)]
    [Pages 1107-1108]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    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 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

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    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 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.