Howard Metzenbaum: “on behalf of myself and Senators Kennedy, Bradley, Lautenberg, Boxer, Pell, and Chafee, I would like to introduce the…”

“on behalf of myself and Senators Kennedy, Bradley, Lautenberg, Boxer, Pell, and Chafee, I would like to introduce the Gun Violence Prevention Act of 1994. I am proud to do so on this very historic day that the Brady bill becomes the law of the land. It is the cornerstone of effective firearm regulation and will prevent many felons from getting guns from dealers. It will save lives. We can thank Sarah and Jim Brady for that. The Brady act is a great start but it is obvious that we need to do more in order to attack the appalling epidemic of gun violence in this country. Let's face the fact--there is a gun crisis in this country. There are over 200 million guns in America. An American is killed by a gun every 14 minutes. Every 50 seconds, someone is raped, robbed, or assaulted with a handgun. And we are all paying the price. Our children are paying the price. Foreign tourists are paying the price. Shopkeepers are paying the price. Innocent bystanders are paying the price. We are all victims. Since 1968, more than 300,000 Americans have been murdered by guns. In 1992, more than 35,000 people were killed by gunfire. Today, only cars cause more fatal injuries than guns, and guns are expected to take the lead very soon. And we cannot even begin to count the number of nonfatal injuries from guns.”