[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 5 (Monday, February 7, 2000)]
[Pages 225-227]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Departure for the Library of Congress and an Exchange With 
Reporters

February 4, 2000

Commerce in Firearms Report

    The President. Good morning. Before I leave to go up to the Hill, 
I'd like to say a few words about an important new report I've just 
received on how guns flow from the legal firearms market to criminals 
and to talk about the unprecedented new actions that we're taking to 
block that flow.
    Keeping guns out of the wrong hands has been a priority for 7 years 
for us, and we

[[Page 226]]

have made some real progress with the Brady law, with the ban on assault 
weapons, cracking down on illegal gun dealing to young people, with 
increased Federal prosecutions of gun crimes, and beginning with the 
directive I issued in 1993, we have nearly quadrupled the number of 
traces that the ATF performs on guns used in crimes.
    With the help of these and other efforts, we've cut gun crime by 35 
percent since 1993, and homicide is at its lowest rate in over 30 years. 
But as I said last week in The State of the Union, no one believes 
America is safe enough, and it's time we set the proper goal to make our 
Nation the safest big country in the world.
    We can do that by building on our progress and applying lessons 
learned. Some crucial lessons are captured in this ground breaking new 
report by ATF, the most comprehensive look at the firearm industry ever 
done by the National Government. Thanks to its increased tracing of 
crime guns, the ATF has been able to uncover an astonishing fact: Only 
one percent of the gun dealers in America sell over 57 percent of the 
guns used in crime. These findings confirm a pattern that Senator Chuck 
Schumer has talked about for several months, and I want to thank him for 
his leadership on this issue.
    In response to the findings in this report, I'm pleased to announce 
today that we're beginning the most aggressive effort ever undertaken to 
ensure responsible behavior by gun dealers. Dealers whose guns most 
frequently wind up in criminals' hands will now be subject to intense 
scrutiny by ATF. All dealers will be required to do a more thorough job 
of reporting gun thefts. In a moment, Secretary Summers, in a briefing, 
will explain to you how these and other actions will work in more 
detail.
    The tragic shooting last year in Columbine High School showed us 
what happens when guns fall into the wrong hands. The actions I've 
announced today will enable the Federal Government to do a better job in 
fulfilling our responsibility to reduce gun violence.
    Others have responsibilities, too. The gun industry must do its 
part. As I've said before, there are responsible citizens in that 
industry, manufacturers and dealers. They can help us to keep the guns 
out of the wrong hands. And Congress must fulfill its responsibility as 
well.
    As its first order of business this year, I've asked Congress to 
pass commonsense gun safety legislation to close the gun show loophole, 
to require safety locks with all new handguns, to ban the importation of 
large-capacity ammunition clips. And again, I repeat my call from the 
State of the Union that all new handgun buyers be required to have photo 
licenses from their States showing they passed the Brady background 
check and a gun safety course.
    Congress has a responsibility, too, to provide law enforcement 
agencies, including the ATF, with the authority and resources they need 
to do their jobs. Under current law, ATF can only inspect a gun dealer, 
no matter how flagrant the problems are. And as I said, one percent of 
the dealers provide 57 percent of the guns used in crime. Under current 
law, ATF is only permitted to inspect such dealerships once a year.
    Today, I asked Congress, as I did last year, to remove this 
restriction, allow ATF to make up to three unannounced visits per year. 
I also asked Congress to fund my plan to hire 1,000 more Federal and 
local gun prosecutors, more ATF agents and inspectors to crack down on 
these illegal gun traffickers and violent gun criminals. And finally, I 
asked Congress to provide law enforcement with the tools to trace every 
gun and every bullet used in every crime in America.
    When 12 children are dying every day in America because of gun 
violence, however, we can't wait for congressional action. That's why 
I'm taking the actions that I have announced today. We've seen the 
progress we can make when Americans at every level, from neighborhoods 
to local police departments, to State and Federal Government, take 
responsibility for fighting crime. Working together, we've brought crime 
down for 7 straight years. We can keep going until America is the safest 
big country in the world.
    I want to again say how grateful I am to the people who are here: 
Secretary
Summers; Treasury Under Secretary for Enforcement Jim Johnson; our ATF 
Director,

[[Page 227]]

Brad Buckles. And as I said, Secretary Summers will talk in the briefing 
room in more detail after I leave.

Unemployment Levels

    Let me just say one final thing before I go. I want to comment on 
the fact that we have just learned that unemployment last month fell to 
4.0 percent, the lowest in three decades. Since 1993, our economy has 
now created nearly 21 million jobs. Today, strong employment numbers 
confirm, once and for all, that this is the longest economic expansion 
in our history.
    The milestone is a credit to the American people, to their hard 
work. It also clearly highlights the need for us to stay on the path of 
fiscal discipline, overseas markets, investment in our people, that got 
us to this point. And I thank you very much.

Austria

    Q. [Inaudible]--call the U.S. Ambassador from Austria, or take any 
other specific measures, now that the Government includes the Freedom 
Party?
    The President. I have to go up to the Hill. Secretary Albright is 
going to have an announcement on that today, in just a couple of hours.

Northern Ireland Peace Process

    Q. [Inaudible] Northern Ireland, sir? Any updates on the situation 
there?
    Q. The process is once again in a crisis.
    The President. Let me just say again--I may have more to say about 
that in the next couple of days--it is at a very pivotal moment, as all 
of you have reported. We are working very hard on that. I have spent a 
lot of time on it; our whole team has.
    I think that right now, the less we say publicly, the better. We are 
working intensely on this. It is imperative that everybody live up to 
the requirements of the Good Friday accord, which was overwhelmingly 
adopted by the people of Northern Ireland in both communities. And 
everybody that's an actor here needs to follow the will of the people. 
We're working on it.
    Q. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:30 a.m. in the South Grounds at the White 
House.