Why do we need this amendment? Some might point to tragedies such as Columbine, but as horrific as the massacre at Columbine was, where eleven young people needlessly lost their lives, that is not what drives the need to close the gun-show loophole. We need this amendment because criminals and terrorists have exploited and are exploiting this very obvious loophole in our gun safety laws. We need t…
The issue of assault weapons is near and dear to my heart. It is not about politics or polls or interest groups. In my view, it is about real people and real lives. It is about the ability of working men and women and children to be safe from disgruntled employees or schoolmates who show up one day at a law firm or school or a place of business and fire away until the room becomes filled with dead…
The VPC [Violence Policy Center] is of the strong opinion that three elements are essential if efforts to reduce firearm-related crime are to be successful. First, effective enforcement measures must be in place to prevent criminals, children, and other prohibited persons from gaining access to firearms. Second, those who violate the law must expect and receive appropriate punishment. And third, i…
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 s…
As a result of the Brady Act, we have helped prevent thousands of guns from getting into the hands of the wrong people. Since the Brady Act went into effect in 1994, more than 242,000 handgun purchases have been denied to convicted felons, fugitives, drug addicts, and other dangerous persons. The Domestic Violence Gun Ban in the Brady Act.. has prevented more than 6,800 firearms sales to people co…
I believe that our forefathers had the right idea. Their wish was to create a safe and free nation for all of us to live in, and they wrote this to prove it: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves …
Every year, more than twenty-four thousand Americans … are killed with handguns…. Some will argue that these grim statistics are the result of weak law enforcement, light sentencing, legitimate fear, and the waning of family values. Others will argue that they are the result of joblessness, poverty, and long-term neglect of our most violent neighborhoods. I have no doubt that the gro…
On January 25 of last year … in Langley, Virginia, an individual with no criminal record went on a shooting spree outside CIA headquarters, killing two and wounding three. On the other side of the country, on July 1 of last year, another individual with no criminal record entered a San Francisco law firm with over 450 rounds of ammunition, eventually killing eight and seriously wounding six…
… [T]here is a gun crisis in this country. There are over two hundred million guns in America. An American is killed by a gun every fourteen minutes. Every fifty 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 pa…
As Americans become increasingly concerned about the threat of nuclear war, they are also understanding the threat from within, the threat of America's handgun war. Yes, war is a proper analogy for America's domestic violence, which is far worse than our most recent foreign war. During the Vietnam War, more American civilians were murdered with handguns here at home in America than A…
America is simple: We live in a society in which the highest priority is the preservation of life; the freedom to live! We have, through our ingenious efforts, developed an instrument that reflects man's greatest inhumanity to man: the handgun, the expressed purpose of which is to kill people. There is no other purpose. The least we can do is to see to it that persons who buy and/or possess…
This myth goes something like this: "Gun control legislation will disarm the law-abiding citizen, leaving him the helpless prey of the crook who will not be affected by the legislation." My response to this contention, although statistically supportable, is based on my courtroom observations over the past four years, where more than one thousand accused felons have appeared before me…
We must realize the pervasive consequences that violent crime—both the threat and reality—has had on our society. It has changed our lives to a degree most often associated with the revolutionary technological changes of the post-World War II period—television, the growth of the automobile and commercial air travel, and computers. Yes, this society has had a long history of vi…
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