There Should Be Stricter Gun Control Laws - Statement Of President Bill Clinton In An Interview With Abc's Good Morning America, May 14, 1999

I think the Brady Bill has made a real difference; having background checks matters. We know that 250,000 people, from the time I signed the Brady Bill in 1994 until last year, were unable to get handguns. We know just since the Insta-Check went in last year, another 36,000 people have been denied the right to get handguns. So closing the gun-show loophole matters. You know … even the NRA says, well, we ought to prosecute crimes. Well, we ought to make the right things crimes, and we ought to make it unlawful for children to possess weapons; we ought to make it unlawful for people to sell them to them or to transfer to them; and we ought to close the loopholes in the law. And as we do that, we will make a difference. This is not just about school shootings, although they're very important, but thirteen children are killed every day by guns on the streets, in the neighborhoods and various circumstances. So I think there are basically three problems. You have more kids that are kind of at risk of violence. You have a culture that desensitizes and glorifies violence, and desensitizes people to it. And it's way too easy to get guns.