There Should Not Be Stricter Gun Control Laws - Testimony Of Charlton Heston, President Of The National Rifle Association Of America (nra), Before The Committee On Government Reform, Subcommittee On Criminal Justice, Drug Policy And Human Resources, U.s.

There is no dispute that just 150 miles from here, in sleepy Richmond, Virginia, they cut gun homicides by one-half in just one year. They employed the awesome simplicity of enforcing existing federal gun law. It's called Project Exile. The word is out on the streets of Richmond that, if you're a felon caught with a gun, you WILL go to jail for five years. They're actually changing criminal behavior and saving lives. That's not partisan, that's not conjecture, that's not hyperbole. Thanks to those fearless prosecutors, innocent Americans are alive today in Richmond that would have died at the hands of armed felons.

But elsewhere across this land, innocent Americans alive today will be dead tomorrow or next month or next year … because this administration, as a policy, is putting gun-toting felons on the streets in record numbers. If you don't believe the NRA, believe the recent independent Syracuse University study that revealed federal prosecutions of gun crimes have dropped by 44% during the Clinton-Gore administration. Right here in our nation's capital, there were some 2,400 violent crimes committed with firearms last year. Guess how many of those armed criminals were prosecuted from federal referrals? Only two. In fact, little old Richmond had more prosecutions under federal gun laws in 1998 than California, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C.—combined!

Why does the president ask for more federal gun laws if he's not going to enforce the ones we have? Why does the president ask for more police if he's not going to prosecute their arrests? This deadly charade is killing people and surely will kill more. When political hot air is turning into cold blood … when duplicitous spin is becoming lethal … somebody's got to speak up.

No lives will be saved talking about how many hours a waiting period should be, or how many rounds a magazine should hold, or how cheap a Saturday Night Special should be. But if you want to impact gun crime now, you will demand that Project Exile be implemented in major U.S. cities now.