Dianne Feinstein: “I will never forget going to a school in Hollywood, CA, speaking to a fourth grade class and asking that class, What is…”

“I will never forget going to a school in Hollywood, CA, speaking to a fourth grade class and asking that class, What is your No. 1 fear? Do you know what it was? It was getting shot in class or on the way to school. I didn't believe it, so I asked the class: Well, how many of you have even heard gunshots? In the fourth grade of this Hollywood elementary school, every single hand went up. Then I remember going to Reseda High School and embracing a mother whose son had been shot in a hallway for no reason at all, just shot dead by another student. That is when I came back and sort of firmed up my resolve to really try to do something about it. In 1993--this is the year before we passed this bill, gun-free schools--the Oakland school officials confiscated 60 guns; Fresno school officials confiscated 43 guns; San Jose, 175 guns; Los Angeles, 256 guns; Long Beach, 37 guns; and San Diego, 30 guns. Who can learn when a youngster has a .45 in their pocket? I don't think your son or daughter could learn. I know my son or daughter or granddaughter couldn't learn in a school if guns are present. So this is a good bill.”