[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 48 (Monday, December 6, 1999)]
[Pages 2472-2473]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Anniversary of the Brady Handgun and Violence 
Prevention Act

November 30, 1999

    Today, on the sixth anniversary of the historic Brady law, I am 
pleased to announce new figures that demonstrate the profound impact 
this legislation has had on public safety. Data released today by the 
Department of Justice show that the Brady law, since its passage in 
1993, has helped block over 470,000 sales by licensed gun dealers to 
felons, fugitives, stalkers, and others prohibited from purchasing 
firearms. In the last year alone, the National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System created under the Brady law has blocked sales to 
over 160,000 of these restricted buyers. These numbers,

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of course, are not just numbers. They represent lives saved, injuries 
avoided, tragedies averted. They are a measure of what we can do to 
reduce gun violence--and a measure of what still needs to be done.
    In addition to our success with the Brady law, this administration 
has taken important actions to crack down on the illegal market that 
supplies juveniles and criminals with firearms. Today Treasury Secretary 
Lawrence Summers will launch the newest tool to fight illegal gun 
dealing--``Online LEAD,'' a new technology to help law enforcement 
across the country use crime-gun tracing data to catch more illegal gun 
traffickers more quickly. As a result of these efforts and those of 
communities across the country, violent gun crime is down by over 35 
percent since 1992, and the murder rate is at its lowest level in over 
three decades. But while we are more effective than ever before at 
keeping guns out the wrong hands, our work is by no means finished. Over 
32,000 Americans still lose their lives in gunfire every year, including 
12 children every day. That is why I pledge to make passage of 
commonsense gun legislation my top public safety priority next year. And 
I challenge Congress to make a New Year's resolution to do the same.