STATEMENT OF REP. CHARLES E. SCHUMER (D-NY)
CHAIRMAN, HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
News Conference
December 8, 1993


GOOD AFTERNOON, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.

I am sad to say that this press conference is so terribly timely.
It was planned far in advance of the horrible killings last
night.  But it underscores the hard fact at the heart of our
epidemic of handgun violence.

There are all kinds of people at large, sick with all kinds of
poisons.  The combination of those poisons and readily available
handguns is explosive.  It causes the kind of carnage that tore
through that long island commuter train last night.  It causes
the tens of thousands of handgun murders that happen every year.

Now i want to look every gun owner in America in the eye and ask
them.  Would you mind a little inconvenience if it will prevent
the kind of killings we saw last night?  I want every one of them
to search their hearts, and then to tell the National Rifle
Association:  I don't mind a little inconvenience.  I want
handgun violence brought under control.

I want to tell the american people we don't have to take this
lying down.  I want to assure the families of the victims on long
island that we can stop this violence.  We're here today to tell
them how.

I want the NRA to hear this, too.

Don't you dare tell me today that we don't need to do more.
Don't you dare tell me that we can't control the sea of guns
drowning this country.  And don't you dare tell the young woman
who survived that train of horrors last night that we can't do
more.  Here is what she said this morning on the television, word
for word: "I'm still in shock that something like this can happen
anywhere"

Anywhere.  Think of the chilling meaning of that word.  Anywhere.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the horror of handgun violence in
America today.  It can happen . . . anywhere.


We once had zones of peace and safety in our lives.  No more.
Handgun violence has taken them all away from us.  30 years ago,
our parks were taken from us.  20 years ago our streets were taken
from us.  10 years ago our schools.  5 years ago our homes.  Last
year our cars.  This year our places of worship.  And last night
even our peaceful daily travels.

This is terrorism, here in America.  It's not in Beirut, or
Bosnia, or Somalia.  It's here.  It's on Long Island, the very
picture of tranquil suburban life.

It can happen anywhere.

Last night's madness killed and wounded my neighbors in New York.
They were not statistics.  They were real people, whose families
and friends grieve for them today.

Today it may be images of people on a television screen.  But
tomorrow it may be someone in your family.  It may be your wife,
or your husband, or your parents -- or, God forbid, your child.

Are we really powerless to stop this raging insanity?

That is what person after person asked me as i came down from New
York this morning.  They were filled with fear and anger.  What can
we do?  they asked.  Are we really captives of these little engines
of destruction, these deadly pieces of steel?

I say we are not.  This is not something we have to sit and take.
We can do more than just wave our hands.  We do not have to live
with this insanity, to just "put up" with it.  The people
of America want control over handguns.  They wanted the Brady
law.  They want more gun control.  And we can give them that
control.

So, Jim and Sarah Brady and I are here to say this: the fight
against handgun violence is not over.  We have just begun to
fight.

Yes, we won a tough battle this year.  Jim and Sarah, Richard Aborn
and their hard-working colleagues at Handgun Control deserve all of
our thanks for the wonderful job they did in that fight.  The
opposition to the Brady law was tough.

Jim and Sarah Brady were tougher.

The comprehensive package we are unveiling today is even tougher
still.  We've broken out of the pack of single steps and
half-measures.  This is a visionary map of an entire journey.  It
calls for giant steps to meet a national crisis.  It raises our
vision.  It challenges us to make the dream come true -- to see
the day when our friends, our families and our children are free
from handgun violence.

And we will see that day.  We're going to hammer guns on the anvil
of a relentless legislative strategy.  We are going to beat guns
into submission.

But we're not kidding you and we're not kidding ourselves.  This
agenda invites a tough fight.  We won't win overnight.  But we will
win.

Richard has already outlined the plan that the Bradys and I are
unveiling today.  Some of this plan -- like the assault weapons
and the prohibition on cop-killers -- is already moving through
the congress.

As soon as the House comes back in January, I will introduce the
heart of the plan in a comprehensive gun bill.

The Schumer handgun control bill is aimed at drying up the river
of handguns that is flooding America.  It is especially aimed at
stopping the torrent of guns that flow from the legal world to
the underworld.

Remember -- every single gun in America starts out as a legal
gun.  The problem is that hundreds of thousands of them move from
legal uses into the hands of violent criminals.

There are four main holes in our present system.  And guns move in
torrents through these holes.  They are:

     > Gun runners.  These are people who go to states with lax gun
       control and buy hundreds of guns using fake identification
       documents.  They then go to other states or cities and sell
       guns on street corners to anyone who comes along with the
       cash.  The problem here is obvious.  There is no standard,
       national, secure form of identification in handgun sales.
       Those who supply violent criminals take advantage of that.
       They use easily obtained phony documents.

     > Straw buyers -- these are people with clean records who stand
       in to buy guns for criminals and gun runners.  They often
       work with rogue dealers.  By the time the police catch up
       with the straw buyer, the real gun runner is impossible to
       find.

     > Rogue gun dealers.  These people abuse their federal firearm
       dealer licenses.  They sell thousands of firearms to drug
       gangs and violent criminals.  Yet they are subject to scant
       regulation.  Anyone with ten dollars to spare and a little
       ingenuity can get a federal firearms license.  That piece of
       paper allows them to get guns by the truckload, direct from
       the manufacturer.

This is one of the most amazing holes in our present system.  It
is easier to get a federal firearms license than to get a drivers
license.

There are over 280,000 federally licensed firearms dealers.  We
have more gun dealers than gas stations.  Even a single rogue
dealer can put literally thousands of illegal guns on the street.

Incredible as it may seem, many federally licensed dealers have
no fixed place of business.  They have no secure storage.  They
sell guns from the trunks of their cars.  They sell them on card
tables at gun shows.  They sell them across their kitchen tables.

This is madness.

     > Gun theft -- Guns are stolen all too often from dealers with
       lax security measures.  There are no federal standards
       requiring dealers to have safe places to keep firearms.

Each of these methods skates around, slips under, or slides
through our present gun laws and regulations.

But we've got a tremendous advantage here.  It's an advantage that
we haven't been using.  All guns start out in a legal, above
ground trade.  And that's a commerce that we can regulate.

Guns are not like drugs, or moonshine, that are criminal from the
start.  Guns are produced above ground.  We can trace every single
handgun produced in America through every single move it makes.
We can clamp down to keep them in legitimate use above ground,
and out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.

We can do this without infringing on the rights of law-abiding
citizens.  We can do it without barring legitimate sporting uses
or self-defense purposes.  But we can make darned sure that
handguns don't get into the hands of criminals.

We can stop this bloody traffic in guns as tools of violent
crime.  We can plug these channels of gun violence.  We can shut
them down.  We can tie them off.

Here's how the Schumer handgun control bill does that.

First, licensing.  The Schumer handgun control bill requires that
all handgun buyers possess a national handgun card, a national
license.  This card will be issued after a thorough background
check, including fingerprints.  It will be regularly renewed.  This
national handgun card directly attacks the fake identification that
the gun runners need to ply their trade.

Second, registration.  To track the movement of handguns after their
first legal sale, the Schumer handgun control bill requires that all
handgun transfers be registered with the federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms.  Those who complain about this should remember
--- we do this with automobiles, without infringing on anyone's
rights.

Third, dealers licensing reforms.  The Schumer handgun control
bill gets much, much tougher on the standards for issuing federal
firearms dealers licenses.  And we will require those who become
dealers to meet much higher standards of care and responsibility.

Federally licensed firearms dealers should be responsible
partners in public safety, not anyone who walks in off the
street.  They should be partners -- not adversaries -- in helping
stem the flow of guns.  Their licenses should be forfeit to
keeping this public trust.

The Schumer handgun control bill will take giant steps toward
forging that partnership and enforcing that trust.

Anyone who wants to be a federally licensed firearms dealer will
have to pass a strict background check.  Every applicant will have
to meet state and local regulations as well and those who pass
these checks will be required to have a real place of business.
That place of business will have to meet high security standards.
And BATF will be given real teeth to inspect gun dealers and
their records.

Just as importantly, the Schumer handgun control bill will make
any gun dealer who sells a gun to a felon civilly liable for
damage to the victim of any violence done with that gun.

Fourth, one gun a month.  The Schumer handgun control bill will
make one handgun a month the national standard.  This will stop
any gun runner who does manage to get a gun buyer's card from
flooding the underground market with hundreds of guns.

Fifth, crack down on thefts.  The Schumer handgun control bill
imposes stiff penalties on gun thieves.  It beefs up ATF
enforcement.  And it requires gun dealers to take thorough
precautions against theft, just as we protect against
pharmaceutical.

In summary, the Schumer handgun control bill mandates:

     > The handgun card to stop straw buyers with phony id's.

     > One gun a month to stop gun-running.

     > Registration also to stop gun-running and transfers to
       criminals.

     > Dealer reform to knock out rogue dealers.

     > Tough penalties and security measures to stop theft.

There is even more to the Schumer handgun control bill.  It will
close loopholes that allow convicted felons to regain the right
to have firearms.  It creates a new federal offense for interstate
gun running.  It increases penalties for making false statements
in connection with the acquisition of a firearm from a licensed
dealer.  It increases dealer license fees to generate enough
revenue to pay the real cost of issuing licenses.

These provisions are at the heart of the plan we're describing
today.  They aren't all of it.  Some other parts may be added to
the Schumer handgun bill.  Other parts will be introduced
separately.  But the entire Brady-Schumer plan you heard about
today will be acted on.

We have a lot to do, folks.  When congress comes back to town, we
will first wrap up two other items.  We must ban semi-automatic
assault weapons and we must ban the new cop-killer bullets that
have appeared in recent years.

Then we will turn full force to the new Schumer-Handgun Control,
Inc. agenda.

Now . . . let me close with a word of hope to all Americans.

We are not alone here.  We will not be alone on the journey we are
starting.  Americans from New York to Miami to Los Angeles are
cheering us on.  They want an end to handgun violence.  They want
the Schumer bill.  They want the entire Brady-Schumer package.

We're going to give it to them.  And it's not going to take seven
years.

###
Speakers

Sarah Brady
Chair, Handgun Control, Inc.

James Brady

Richard Aborn
President, Handgun Control, Inc.

Congressman Charles Schumer (D-NY)

Mayor Wellington Webb
Denver, Colorado
Chair, U.S. Conference of Mayors' Task Force on Violence and
Crime

Mayor Rita Mullins
Palatine, Illinois
Chair, U.S. Conference of Mayors' Subcommittee on Gun Control

Mayor Paul R. Soglin
Madison, Wisconsin
Chair, U.S. Conference of Mayors' Urban Economic Policy Committee

Mayor Deedee Corradini
Salt Lake City, Utah
Member, U.S. Conference of Mayors' Task Force on Violence and
Crime

Chief of Police (retired) Neil Behan
Baltimore County, Maryland

Chief Steven Bishop
Kansas City, Missouri

Police Commissioner-Designate William Bratton
New York New York
(currently Police Commissioner of Boston, Massachusetts)

Chief Laurent Gilbert
Lewiston, Maine

Superintendent Matt Rodriguez
Chicago, Illinois