    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 35 (Monday, September 4, 2000)]
    [Page 1964]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Statement on the National Crime Victimization Survey

    August 27, 2000

        Today the Department of Justice released the 1999 National Crime
    Victimization Survey (NCVS) which shows that last year the Nation's
    violent crime rate experienced the single largest one-year drop in the
    survey's history and is at its lowest level in over 25 years. This news
    is further proof that the Clinton-Gore administration's anticrime
    strategy of more police on our streets and fewer guns in the wrong hands
    has helped to create the safest America in a generation. Since the Vice
    President and I took office in 1993, every major category of violent and
    property crime has decreased significantly according to today's NCVS,
    with the overall violent crime rate down by one-third and the rates for
    rape and robberies and assaults with injuries down by more than one-
    third.
        Despite our extraordinary progress, we can and must make America
    even safer. Every year our Nation loses nearly 30,000 Americans--
    including 10 children every day--to gun violence. That is why I call on
    Congress to continue our success by funding our administration's
    proposals to put up to an additional 50,000 community police officers on
    the street and hire 1,000 new Federal, State, and local gun prosecutors
    and 500 ATF firearms agents and inspectors to crack down on gun
    criminals. Congress also must make passage of the long-stalled
    commonsense gun safety legislation a top priority as our children
    prepare to return to school. Together, we can continue to drive down the
    Nation's crime rates and improve the quality of life for American
    families for generations to come.

      Note:  This statement was made available by the Office of the Press
    Secretary on August 25 but was embargoed for release until 4:30 p.m.,
    August 27.