[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 24 (Monday, June 21, 1999)]
[Pages 1109-1111]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Gun Control Legislation

June 15, 1999

    The President. Please be seated, everyone. Welcome to the Rose 
Garden on this beautiful afternoon. I want to especially thank those who 
will be speaking after me, Representatives Connie Morella and Carolyn 
McCarthy and our leader of the Democrats in the House, Dick Gephardt. I 
thank the many Members of Congress who are here, and others for whom 
they speak who are not able to be here this afternoon.
    I also want to thank Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, Treasury 
Under Secretary Jim Johnson, Director of the Bureau of Justice 
Statistics Jan Chaiken, representatives of the law enforcement and faith 
communities, gun advocacy, and victims groups who are here today.
    Five and a half years ago, here at the White House, I signed the 
Brady bill into law. I was especially pleased to be standing that day 
beside two great women fighters against gun violence, Sarah Brady and 
Attorney General Janet Reno. Today I am proud to be here with 
Congresswoman Morella and Congresswoman McCarthy and many other of the 
women Members of the United States House of Representatives, along with 
some men they allowed to come along today--[laughter]--and who 
appreciated being invited.
    I think it is important to note that women Members of both parties 
in Washington and women who belong to both parties in America, all over 
this country, have been in the forefront of this fight. They care about 
it as mothers, as sisters, as daughters, as citizens of this country. In 
the audience with us today are a number of mothers and fathers whose 
children have been victims of gun violence, and others who have 
personally suffered from it. Particularly to those who have been 
personally affected, I thank you for coming.
    On that day when I signed the Brady bill, I said that our efforts to 
produce this bill proved once again that democracy can work. The 
American people and their grassroots demand for commonsense action 
against gun violence prevailed over the entrenched and very powerful 
Washington gun lobby. Now, in the aftermath of the terrible shootings at 
Littleton, our Nation is even more galvanized to act on every front to 
reduce crime, especially violence committed by and against our children.
    In recent weeks, we've talked about the need to reduce our 
children's exposure to violence in the media and have taken steps to do 
just that. We've talked about the need for parents to be more present in 
their children's lives, and we are taking steps to give parents new time 
to do so. We've talked about the need for a national grassroots citizens 
effort to combat violence against children, and we're in the process of 
establishing that. But we've also talked about the need to take new 
steps to keep guns out of the hands of juveniles, criminals, and others 
who shouldn't have them.
    Now is the time for those of us in Government to act by 
strengthening the Brady law. Congress has a chance to do that this week. 
Once again, the gun lobby is resisting with all its might. Once again, 
we're battling not just for the safety of our families but for the 
soundness of our democracy.
    Support for the Brady bill is as bipartisan, as broad as the 
American people. Teachers, doctors, law enforcement officials, even gun 
manufacturers, support it. About the only ones who are against it, 
still, are the NRA and its allies in Congress. It seems that every day 
they try another procedural or rhetorical trick to confuse everyone and 
avoid responsibility. These are the same kind of tactical smokescreens 
they threw up 6 years ago.

[[Page 1110]]

    Back then--now let's just remember--I want every Member of Congress 
to think about this before they vote on Thursday--what did they say 6 
years ago? They said the Brady bill threatened the right of citizens to 
own firearms. Well, today we know the second amendment, hunting, and 
sport shooting are alive and well in America, just as alive and well as 
they were in 1994. But we also know they said gun violence wouldn't be 
reduced if the Brady bill passed. But since 1993, gun crimes have fallen 
by over 25 percent. Police chiefs all across America believe the Brady 
law is vital to their efforts.
    You remember the gun lobby said that requiring background checks at 
gun stores wouldn't keep guns out of the hands of criminals, because 
criminals don't buy guns at stores, they said. Well, that claim has now 
been disproved hundreds of thousands of times.
    Periodically, the Justice Department estimates how effective the 
Brady law has been in keeping guns out of the hands of those who 
shouldn't have them. Today I'm pleased to announce the latest figures. 
Since it went into effect in 1994, the Brady law has blocked over 
400,000 illegal gun sales. That's a pretty good record for the United 
States of America.
    Two-thirds--two-thirds of those sales were to people indicted or 
convicted of felony crimes. Most of the rest were fugitives or had 
records of domestic violence, drug abuse, or mental illness. We have 
stopped over 400,000 gun sales that were dangerous since 1994 because 
Congress listened to the American people and not the NRA and passed the 
Brady bill. And I'll say again, every single, red flag they threw up 
about all the danger and all the burden and all the problems this would 
be to gun owners was wrong, wrong, wrong.
    Now, Congress has another vitally important choice before it. Are 
they going to strengthen the Brady bill or weaken it? The Brady law has 
worked. It's worked so well, in fact, that criminals now have to buy 
their weapons at places not fully covered by the gun laws, like gun 
shows and flea markets.
    Now, you remember when the NRA said in 1994, ``We don't really need 
the Brady bill, because people don't buy their guns at gun stores; these 
criminals don't buy their guns there.'' So, now they want to protect the 
sales at the places where the criminals do buy their guns, the flea 
markets and the gun shows. Someone ought to go back before we vote on 
Thursday and read them what they said in 1994 and remind them where they 
do buy the guns.
    Earlier this year, I sent to Congress measures to close the loophole 
by expanding the background checks to gun shows and to flea markets 
where guns are sold along with other items. Last month the Senate passed 
these measures, thanks to a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Gore, 
and despite efforts by the gun lobby to shoot new loopholes in the Brady 
law. The Senate did the right thing, and the House should follow suit.
    Now, I want to be fair to the House Members who are not here. This 
is a harder vote in the House, and we have to work harder to help them 
and to stand by them. Why? Because some of our Members who desperately 
want to vote for this bill come from congressional districts which are 
less populous than almost all States and where the influence of the NRA 
and their ability to promote scare tactics and misinformation is 
relatively greater. So, it's a harder vote, and we're going to have to 
work harder, all of us.
    But look at what they're being asked to do. They're being asked to 
reject the measures that the Senate passed which were by any standard 
moderate and commonsense and, instead, adopt bills that were 
ghostwritten by the NRA. Listen to this: The gun lobby's bill would 
leave a gaping loophole in the gun show provision, would exempt flea 
markets from Brady checks altogether. Now, this is from the same group 
that told us in 1994 there was no point in regulating sales at gun 
stores because the criminals got their guns somewhere else. So, now we 
want to go somewhere else, and they can't wait to protect that. Someone 
should ask about this before we have a vote on Thursday.
    This provision of theirs would invite felons, fugitives, and 
stalkers to buy their weapons at flea markets or walk out in the parking 
lot at the gun show. The gun lobby's bill

[[Page 1111]]

would shorten the time allowed for background checks, giving thousands 
of criminals a year the chance to slip through the system. They would 
let gun dealers ship weapons--now, listen to this--I want to say this 
again. Sometimes we get up here; we read these speeches; and I get too 
much in a hurry. I want you to listen to this. They would let gun 
dealers ship weapons directly to unlicensed buyers, across State lines, 
reversing 30 years of settled law that has helped to control interstate 
gunrunning.
    I want the House to reject these bills, and pass legislation that 
will strengthen, not weaken, the Brady law. I want us to honor the 
sacrifices of those people in Littleton, Colorado, not turn our backs on 
them.
    I also think the House should take further action to reduce gun 
violence, especially among the young. Yesterday the Vice President 
announced a new Government study showing that young people, age 18 
through 20, make up just 4 percent of our population but commit 24 
percent of all gun murders. We could save lives by raising the legal age 
of handgun possession from 18 to 21, and I ask the House to do that as 
well.
    I also call on the House to mandate that child safety locks be sold 
with all new handguns as the Senate has done.
    Let me say, I have been deeply encouraged by the comments we've been 
getting, the calls we've gotten here at the White House, from people 
identifying themselves as Republicans, as well as Democrats, people 
identifying themselves as long-time NRA members, who say, ``This is 
crazy. Why are we out here fighting an attempt to close the loopholes in 
gun shows and flea markets? How can we be against child safety locks? 
Why should kids under the age of 21 be walking the streets with these 
guns?'' America is in a different place than they were in 1994. The 
numbers are larger and more intense. We have all been sobered by what we 
have been through in these school shootings, and the 13 children a day 
that die by gun violence in ones and twos and never make the evening 
news.
    This is too important an issue to be decided by strong-arm lobbying 
tactics in Washington. The heart and soul of America is on the line. And 
out in America, this is not a partisan issue.
    I would like now to introduce someone who embodies the best of our 
bipartisan efforts, Congresswoman Connie Morella, from the State of 
Maryland.

[At this point, Representatives Connie Morella, Carolyn McCarthy, and 
Dick Gephardt made brief remarks.]

    The President. Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to adjourn. 
Congress has to go back to cast a vote. I want to thank Congresswoman 
Morella, Congresswoman McCarthy, Leader Gephardt, all the Members who 
are here.
    I don't know what will be on the evening news tonight, but one thing 
I hope will be remembered--Carolyn McCarthy, who has earned a right to 
stand here before God and every American and say whatever she pleases 
about this issue, said that the Congress needed to hear from the 
American people in the next 2 days. And Dick Gephardt said that Congress 
needs to listen to its heart. Connie Morella said it is a nonpartisan 
issue. I hope those three things will be heard and remembered.
    God bless you, and thank you for being here.

Note: The President spoke at 1:10 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Sarah Brady, chair, Handgun 
Control, Inc.