[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.