Date: 1999-05-24
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. the purpose of my remarks is to try and gain support within the Republican leadership to move and to move in an urgent fashion with respect to the gun safety provisions that have passed the Senate. Mr. Speaker. this country has been shocked over the past 2 years as we have witnessed the shootings in Springfield. Oregon. Fayetteville. Tennessee. Edinboro. Pennsylvania. Jonesboro. Kansas. West Paducah. Kentucky. Pearl. Mississippi. and in.Littleton. Colorado. as we have seen children take up arms against their schoolmates. against their friends. in school. And while we will be discussing these matters at great length for a long period of time in the Congress as the Nation and the Congress come to grips with what we might do to try and prevent these actions in the future. one thing seems to be very clear among the people in this country. and I would hope among the people in the Congress and certainly among the Republican leadership. and that is that keeping guns out of the hands of kids will help to ensure that the feelings of anger and hostility do not lead to fatal shooting sprees. We clearly need to listen to children and parents and make sure that school counseling and mental health resources are sufficient. and we must understand that the causes of youth violence are complicated and that the solutions must be broadbased. and we must strive to understand what brings children to this point where they would take up this violent action with guns against their schoolmates. It is urgent to the American public that the Congress be able to respond to the problems of children having guns. having easy access to guns. and the irresponsibility of some parents who make those guns available or negligently leave those guns lying around the house. in many instances loaded and unlocked. with easy access by these children. Last week the Senate passed several pieces of legislation designed to improve the margins of gun safety. if you will. requiring background checks for all gun sales. including gun shows. We have a companion bill here by the gentleman from Illinois requiring new handguns to be sold with safety locks. We have companion legislation here by the gentlewoman from Indiana outlawing high density ammunition clips. so they will not be made available. I think that these are measures that the American public can understand. that the American public supports. that the American public. whatever their positions are with respect to gun control. understand that these are gun safety issues about the safety of our children.. Our children are. in many instances. some of our most vulnerable citizens. who go to school with all the expectations that we all went to school with when we were growing up. only to find out that it can become a shooting gallery because of the easy access of a troubled teen or a troubled youngster to these kinds of guns. Yet what we see is an effort to somehow not address this legislation on a timely fashion. not to take that legislation from the Senate and to pass it. not to have a freestanding piece of legislation which we can pass and send to the Senate that is identical to that which they passed so that they might be able to put it on the Presidents desk before we leave for Memorial Day. No. what we see is. we are going to get one hearing this Week. and then action perhaps in the committee sometime in June. Knowing the July schedule. knowing the August schedule. It is very likely. it is very likely. that Americas schoolchildren will start the next school year without the Congress of the United States having addressed this issue. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia .