I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 515
To prevent children from injuring themselves with handguns.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 3, 1999
Ms. CARSON (for herself, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. BRADY of Pennsyl-
vania, Mr. STARK, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. LU-
THER, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. WEXLER, Mrs. CHRISTIAN-
CHRISTENSEN, Mr. NADLER, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. FORD, Ms.
MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. LAFALCE, Mr. CLAY, Ms.
DEGETTE, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. LANTOS, Mrs. CLAYTON, Ms.
PELOSI, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. GEORGE MILLER
of California, and Mr. ABERCROMBIE) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the
Committee on Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To prevent children from injuring themselves with handguns.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Handgun Injury
Prevention Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) In the 10 years from 1987 through 1996,
nearly 2,200 children in the United States who were
14 years of age or younger died from unintentional
shootings, and in 1996 alone, 138 children were shot
and killed unintentionally, which is an average of 11
children every month, or 1 child every third day, ac-
cording to the National Center for Health Statistics.
(2) The United States leads the industrialized
world in the rates of children lost to unintentional
firearms-related death. A 1997 study from the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Prevention found that
for unintentional firearms-related deaths for children
under the age of 15, the rate in the United States
was 9 times greater than in 25 other industrialized
countries combined.
(3) While the number of unintentional deaths
from firearms is an unacceptable toll on the children
of the United States, nearly 8 times that number are
treated annually in hospital emergency rooms in the
United States for nonfatal unintentional gunshot
wounds, according to an article in the June 12,
1996, issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
(4) In the June 12, 1987, issue of the Journal
of the American Medical Association, a study of un-
intentional firearms deaths among children in Cali-
fornia found that unintentional gunshot wounds
most often involve handguns.
(5) A study in the December 1995 issue of the
Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found
that children as young as 3 years old are strong
enough to fire most commercially available hand-
guns. The study found that 25 percent of 3- to 4-
year-olds and 70 percent of 5- to 6-year-olds had
sufficient finger strength to fire 59 (or 92 percent)
of the 64 commonly available handguns examined in
the study.
(6) Currently, firearms are the only products
manufactured in the United States that are not sub-
ject to minimum safety standards.
(7) A 1997 public opinion poll conducted by the
National Opinion Research Center at the University
of Chicago in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins
Center for Gun Policy and Research found that 74
percent of the people of the United States support
safety regulation of the firearms industry.
(8) Firearms, their component parts, and safety
locks designed to prevent firearms from accidentally
discharging, all move in interstate commerce.