Political Quotes

“I do not believe that this child safety lock amendment is a panacea--the cure-all, which will stop all kids from dying. But it will help. And I believe we must do whatever we can to help. I want to talk to you about a survey that was done by the Violence Policy Center called ``Kids Shooting Kids.'' These are stories from across the Nation of unintentional shootings among children and youth. This is a 9-month period in 1996. You read a story and you think, ``This is horrible,'' and you don't realize the extent to which this is affecting our families and hurting our children. So what I would like to do is read a number of these cases with this point in mind, to show you how widespread this crisis truly is. It is not a panacea, but I believe it will save children's lives--maybe 100, maybe 200, a year. As you hear these stories, what I want you to do is ask yourself a question, I say to my colleagues: If there was a lock on that gun, would this accident have happened? That is what I am asking you to do. Put the commonsense test to it.”