Bill Clinton: “Let's talk about the gun suit first, and then I'll respond to the general question. The litigation, which is being…”

“Let's talk about the gun suit first, and then I'll respond to the general question. The litigation, which is being initiated by public housing authorities, has a good grounding in fact. There are 10,000 gun crimes every year in the largest public housing authorities. Now, they spend a billion dollars on security. And I think it's important that the American people know they're not asking for money from the gun manufacturers; they are seeking a remedy to try to help solve the problem. They want, first of all, more care from the manufacturers and the dealers with whom they deal. Senator Schumer released a study, you may remember, that said that one percent of the gun dealers sell 50 percent of the guns involved in gun crimes. Now, if that study is accurate--and he believes it is--that is a stunning fact. And there ought to be something done about that. And if there is a way that the court could craft a resolution of that, that would be a good thing, I think. The second thing we want to do is to stop irresponsible marketing practices. You all remember that one company advertised an assault weapon by saying that it was hard to get fingerprints from. You know, you don't have to be all broke out with brilliance to figure out what the message is there. And the third thing they want is some safety design changes. Now, let me hasten to say that we have a lot of gun manufacturers in this country who have been, I think, immensely responsible. You'll remember the majority of the gun manufacturers signed on to our proposal for child trigger locks. I still would like legislation to cover them all. But this should not be viewed--if you look at the nature of the release, they're not trying to bankrupt any companies; they're trying to make their living spaces safer. And I think it's a legitimate thing. Now to your general question, I think if you go back over the whole reach of our tenure here, I have always tried to use the executive authority in areas where I thought it was important. We're doing it on medical privacy. We're doing it on--yesterday we had the press conference on prevention of medical errors. We're doing it with the paid family leave initiative we offered to the States. We did it when we set aside the roadless areas in the forests. So I think this is an appropriate thing to do. But I would also remind you at the end of this legislative session from the Congress, we got 100,000 teachers, 50,000 police, 60,000 housing vouchers to help people move from welfare to work. We passed the Kennedy-Jeffords bill to allow people with disabilities to move into the workplace and keep their medical care from the Government. We passed the Financial Modernization Act, which will dramatically, I think, improve financial services, grow the economy. And we've protected the Community Reinvestment Act. We doubled funds for after-school programs. We provided, for the very first time ever, funds to help school districts turn around failing schools or shut them down. So I'm continuing to work with Congress, and I will do so vigorously. But I think this was an appropriate thing to do on the merits. Yes. Seattle Round”