[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 25 (Monday, June 28, 1999)]
[Pages 1142-1143]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

June 19, 1999

    Good morning. Tomorrow will mark the 2-month anniversary of the 
terrible school shooting in Littleton, Colorado. This tragedy shocked 
our Nation and galvanized our determination to protect our children from 
violence.
    Together with the entertainment industry, we're finding new ways to 
reduce our children's exposure to graphic and gratuitous violence in 
movies, TV, and video games. Together with parents, teachers, and 
community leaders, we're talking about how we can increase our 
involvement in our children's lives and reach out to troubled young 
people

[[Page 1143]]

before they act in violence; how together we can form a grassroots 
campaign against violence directed at young children. Together as a 
nation, we're searching our hearts and minds for the best way to prevent 
anything like this from happening again.
    Now, one of the most urgent lessons of Littleton--and the plea of so 
many parents who've lost their own children to gun violence--is that to 
keep our children safe, we simply must do more to keep guns away from 
young people and out of the hands of criminals.
    Time and again, the gun lobby has used every weapon in its arsenal 
to defeat any effort to strengthen our gun laws, no matter how sensible. 
This week it, sadly, happened again.
    I sent to Congress a very sensible, moderate proposal to apply Brady 
background checks to gun shows. These are the same simple background 
checks that have now stopped 400,000 illegal gun sales without stopping 
a single legitimate purchaser from buying a gun over the last 5 years. 
Thanks to a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Gore, the Senate did the 
right thing and passed this measure. But the sound of the gavel hadn't 
died in the Senate Chamber before the gun lobby set its sights on the 
bill before the House of Representatives.
    This week the House of Representatives gutted our bill in the dark 
of night--literally, after midnight--because the gun lobby didn't want 
commonsense gun legislation to see the light of day.
    That is unacceptable. We can't allow the gun lobby to rewrite our 
laws and undermine our values. So today, again, I say to Congress: 
You've still got an opportunity, and you've still got an obligation to 
do the right thing and pass real legislation that will strengthen our 
gun laws, not weaken them. Pass a law that applies to all gun shows, not 
one that lets criminals turn flea markets and parking lots into gun 
bazaars. Pass a law that gives law enforcement enough time to run real 
background checks, not one that lets more criminals slip through the 
cracks. Pass a law that closes the deadly gun show loophole once and for 
all.
    Try this--before you send me that final bill, ask yourselves 
questions that are on every American's mind: Will this bill make it 
easier or harder for criminals to get guns? Will more lives be lost or 
more lives be saved? Is this about politics or putting our children's 
safety first?
    I say to the gun lobby again: I wish you would help us. Nobody is 
going to be hurt by this legislation. But we've overcome your scare 
tactics and strong-arm pressure before. We did it with the Brady law; we 
did it with the assault weapons ban. We've got the lowest crime rate in 
25 years; the American people are safer and honest hunters and sportsmen 
haven't been hurt a bit. The American people understand that commonsense 
gun laws don't infringe our rights; they protect our lives. It's that 
simple.
    This isn't a partisan issue anywhere else in America; it shouldn't 
be a partisan issue in Washington. Let us learn from the lessons of 
Littleton. Let us remember the children of Littleton and, indeed, honor 
the memory of all the children who lost their lives to gun violence in 
our country. Let's build a stronger and safer America for our kids in 
the 21st century.
    Thank for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 11:43 p.m. on June 18 in the Senator 
Room a the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne, Germany, for broadcast at 
10:06 a.m. e.d.t. on June 19. The transcript was embargoed for release 
until the broadcast.