THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release April 25, 1994 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT CRIME VICTIMS' RIGHTS ANNOUNCEMENT The Rose Garden 2:40 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Attorney General Reno, Secretary Bentsen, ladies and gentlemen. Before I go any further, because they had to introduce other people, I don't know that we appropriately thanked Lieutenant Bean and Steve Sposato for their -- just their sheer courage for coming here and telling their stories. And I think we ought to recognize that. (Applause.) As has already been said just before we came out to the Rose Garden, I was in the Oval Office, proclaiming this week National Crime Victims' Rights Week; and, again, recognizing the 11 people who have already stood up and been recognized for what they've done in the cause of victims' rights. I want to wish all of them well and encourage them to continue their important work. I want to assure them that the Justice Department and the Office of Victims' Rights and Aileen Adams, the new Director, we're all going to do everything we can in this regard. The visit of the victims' rights advocates is especially important here today because, as everyone has already said, we are at a pivotal point in the fight for the crime bill. One of the reasons that I ran for President -- I was glad to hear Mr. Sposato say he was a registered Republican -- because one of the reasons I ran for president is, I couldn't imagine how it seemed to me from a distance every problem in Washington became a subject of partisan dispute, no matter how much it seemed to all of us who lived out there in the hinterland to be a human problem that ought to bring people together, not divide them. It took seven years to pass the Brady Bill after Jim Brady was nearly killed, with President Reagan. It's already beginning to save lives, because the background checks do make a difference. For five years the crime bill has been paralyzed and defeated time after time in the 11th hour because of some partisan dispute. Now it appears clearly that gridlock has been broken. The crime bill passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the Senate in its first forum, and then another bill in the House also with a bipartisan majority. We think we're closing in on a bill that will make our streets, our homes, our schools, our lives safer. Victims' concerns are a centerpiece of the crime bill. They include the development of state registries for convicted child abusers; the expansion of programs to combat violence against women; the imposition of life sentences for three times repeat violent offenders. But I also say to you today that we should take this opportunity to end the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction on our streets. People say the President should stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction around the world. Why don't we start with the streets of the United States of America? (Applause.) I have asked Attorney General Reno, a former prosecutor, and Secretary Bentsen, an ardent hunter who's also in charge of registering the gun dealers of this country -- the licensed gun dealers -- to spearhead this effort. I have asked our Drug Policy Director Lee Brown, who just came in and is a former Chief of Police in Atlanta, in Houston, in New York City, to reach out and mobilize the law enforcement support that we need. It's not just Lieutenant Bean -- every major law enforcement organization in this country has said we should ban semi-automatic assault weapons. And most importantly, I want to ask the law-abiding citizens of this country to tell Congress that it's okay to vote for this and take these kinds of weapons off our streets. I know there are those who oppose any effort to ban assault weapons. I've heard all the arguments. There's the camel's nose in the tent argument -- today the assault weapons, tomorrow my .22. There's the argument that, yes, there are a million of these weapons in circulation and 80-some percent of them belong to criminals, but what about the other 10 or 12 percent? There's the argument that, well, maybe it'll save some lives, but all those people will go out and get a revolver and kill somebody. I hate to be crass about it, ladies and gentlemen, but I'll bet you if Steve could get up here and say again, he would gladly trade his wife's chances for that maniac with a six-shooter revolver over what she and the lawyer and all the other people in that office building had to face. I mean, who are we trying to kid? There is an air of unreality about this debate in Washington that has very little to do with the reality of what Lieutenant Bean and his deceased partner and all the other law enforcement officials in this country face day in and day out on the street every single solitary day. Do I believe that there's a right to keep and bear arms in this country? You bet I do. I also believe there's something wrong with our country being the site of 90 percent of the youth homicides in the entire world -- don't you? I think there's something wrong when one in 20 teenagers carries a gun to school and 160,000 a day -- a day -- stay home because they are afraid to go to school. I think there's something wrong with that. (Applause.) I think the American people have a right to be safe and secure. How can we pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if we don't have the most elemental security? The weapons of choice for drug traffickers, gang members, paramilitary extremist groups are these assault weapons. This ban in the bill, as the Secretary of the Treasury said, specifically excludes from banning over 600 sporting weapons, including Remington and Browning rifles that have a semi-automatic firing mechanism with relatively few shots that are exclusively used for hunting. This is a very carefully drawn piece of legislation. It does not include protections for the AR-15, the AK-47, and the Uzi, to name just a few. These weapons were designed for the battlefield, not for the streets of America. This is a real test for us. What will the members of the House be thinking of when they vote on this bill? The letters they will surely get if they vote for it, Secretary Bentsen described? Or, will they think of the man who had a modified AK-47 who went into a schoolyard at recess time in Stockton, California five years ago and, in less than two minutes, killed five kids and wounded 29 others? Will they think of what happened to Steve Sposato's wife and the other people who were in that building? Will they think of the 23 people who were killed in that cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, or the four Hasidic students who were shot on the Brooklyn Bridge? You know, we have a lot of freedom in this country. And I was always raised to believe that with that freedom goes responsibility. I would argue to you, my fellow Americans, that as a people, individually and through our elected representatives, we have been woefully irresponsible in permitting the spread of these kinds of weapons to make police officers outgunned and ordinary citizens in more danger than they would have been anyway. Now, this crime bill also contains a prohibition on the ownership and possession of handguns by minors unless they are under the supervision of a responsible adult, out for an approved legal purpose. If we can do that, surely we can do this. This is a big deal, not only because of the weapons involved, but because it will tell us whether we are really going to continue to keep working on this problem. The crime bill will make a difference. The police will make a difference. The prevention money will make a difference. The victims assistance efforts will make a difference. The tougher penalties will make a difference. But we have to change the rules of the game. Today, in a free and open society, the presence of these assault weapons drastically tilt the rules of the game against the innocent and the law-abiding and the law-enforcing. And it is wrong. Let me just close very briefly with this story. In 1992, early in the year, I was in New York one night to give a speech to a dinner which had been organized in behalf of our campaign. And I was going through the back way of this hotel, and through a kitchen; and one of the gentlemen who was on the hotel staff came up to me and told me he was an immigrant. And he said, in the country where I came from, we were very poor; and I was glad to come to America where I do better. My 10-year-old boy is a student in school, and he is studying this election. He thinks I should vote for you. But before I say I will, I want to ask you something. I want you to make my boy free. He said, you see, we have more money here than we had at home, but at home we were free. I said, what do you mean? He said, how is my boy free when he cannot walk to school by himself; when there is a beautiful park across the street from our apartment, but he cannot play there alone unless I am there with him? So if I give you my vote, will you make my boy free? Freedom is an empty word to people who are not even gifted with elemental safety. And I urge you to help us make sure that when the members of the United States House of Representatives vote on this bill, they are thinking about that freedom for all Americans. Thank you all very much. (Applause.) END2:51 P.M. EDT