Political Quotes

“I introduce two measures to help fight the epidemic of bullet-related violence in America: the Real Cost of Destructive Ammunition Act and the Destructive Ammunition Prohibition Act of 1997. The purpose of these bills is to prevent from reaching the marketplace some of the most deadly rounds of ammunition ever produced. Some of my colleagues may remember the Black Talon. It is a hollow-tipped bullet, singular among handgun ammunition in its capacity for destruction. Upon impact with human tissue, the bullet produces razor-sharp radial petals that produce a devastating wound. It is the very same bullet that a crazed gunman fired at unsuspecting passengers on a Long Island Railroad train in December 1993, killing the husband of now Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy and injuring her son. That same month, it was also used in the shooting of Officer Jason E. White of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, just 15 blocks from the Capitol. I first learned of the Black Talon in a letter I received from Dr. E.J. Gallagher, director of Emergency Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at the Municipal Hospital Trauma Center in the Bronx. Dr. Gallagher wrote that he has never seen a more lethal projectile. On November 3, 1993, I introduced a bill to tax the Black Talon at 10,000 percent. Nineteen days later, Olin Corp., the manufacturer of the Black Talon, announced that it would withdraw sale of the bullet to the general public.”