Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, my amendment states that once the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance decides to make Byrne discretionary grants available on a competitive basis to public agencies for antigang law enforcement initiatives, she must give special priority to those agencies that have proposed, in their applications already implemented, strategies tracing the sources of those guns provided to juveniles. We all know too well the problem of juvenile gun violence. Specifically, virtually all of the striking increase in the juvenile homicide rate between 1987 and 1994 was associated with guns. A 1993 survey of male students in 10 inner city public schools revealed that 65 percent of those surveyed thought it would be no trouble at all to get their hands on a gun. An ex-gang member from Minnesota recently stated that for teenagers, acquiring guns is as easy as ordering pizza. The evidence is clear, thanks to both big-time interstate gun runners and small-time black market dealers, juveniles have easy access to guns and are using them to kill one another. Over the past few years, the city of Boston has shown us a way to make a serious dent in the illicit gun sales to juveniles and thus cut down on deadly youth violence. The Boston gun project began with a simple idea: If we want to stop kids from shooting each other, we have to get the guns out of their hands.”