Richard Gephardt: “I strongly support the motion that is before us today. The juvenile justice conference was supposed to hammer out a…”

“I strongly support the motion that is before us today. The juvenile justice conference was supposed to hammer out a compromise bill. Instead, the conference seems to be in hibernation. It is bad enough that the conference has not met since last August. What is even worse is that now Republican leaders have abandoned any effort to work out a bipartisan solution. Republican leaders are now rapidly backtracking from efforts to move a bill out of conference that addresses the core issues behind the epidemic of violence that threatens our young people. Yesterday, the Majority Leader stated that he would support dismantling the juvenile justice bill to eliminate the Senate-passed gun safety provisions. I think we have a simple choice to make. Do we back down and eviscerate the bipartisan compromise in the Senate, or do we move forward to protect the children of America? The choice should be clear to anyone who is fed up with violence in our schools and in our neighborhoods. We must stand up for parents and the safety of their children by sitting down and reaching a bipartisan agreement to close the gun show loophole. I had a policeman in Chicago who had been shot 13 times by a gang tell me that, when he goes to the high schools in Chicago and asks the students how many have a gun at home, everybody raises their hand. How many know where the gun is? Everybody raises their hand. How many have shot the gun? Everybody raises their hand.”