Jerry Brown: “Mr. Speaker I do not profess to be an expert on the issue of the assault weapons ban. But I have heard from two people I…”

“Mr. Speaker I do not profess to be an expert on the issue of the assault weapons ban. But I have heard from two people I would consider experts on the issue: Samuel Scott, chief of police in Fontana, CA and Dennis Hegwood, chief of police in Rialto, CA--both cities in my district. They are both against any effort to repeal the assault weapons ban. Even without the support of police chiefs and other national police organizations, recently released statistics prove why we should maintain the assault weapons ban. During the late 1980's assault weapons accounted for about 8 to 10 percent of all guns traced by law enforcement, even though assault weapons accounted for only about 1 percent of the guns in private hands. However, the number of assault weapons traces initiated in the first 8 months of 1995, 1 year after the ban's enactment, fell for the first time in recent years from prior year's level. There were 510 fewer assault weapons traced to crime in the first 8 months of 1995 than were traced during the same period in 1994--an 18-percent reduction over a 1-year period. I seem to recall that my Republican friends across the aisle want to base every judgment about Government programs and agencies on statistical data. Well, the statistical data proves that this is an effective law.”