| WASHINGTON
- March 24 - Marking the one year anniversary of the schoolyard shooting in Jonesboro,
Arkansas, Handgun Control Chair Sarah Brady, the wife of gun violence victim and
former White House press secretary James Brady, today joined Senator Edward
Kennedy (D-MA), Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and other lawmakers to
reintroduce comprehensive legislation to prevent gun fatalities and injuries
among children. During the last Congress, Senator Kennedy and Representative
McCarthy introduced the bill -- the first comprehensive legislation to deal with
the growing epidemic of gun violence and children’s access to guns -- but the
leadership in Congress failed to act on the legislation before adjourning for
the year in October 1998.
Mrs. Brady and the sponsors of the legislation were joined
by gun violence survivor Betina Lynn from Springfield, Oregon, who knows
firsthand about the dangers of kids using guns. On May 21, 1998, a 15-year-old
student carried a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle and two handguns taken from
his home, fired 51 shots into the Thurston High School cafeteria killing two
students and wounding 19 others, including Betina. Catherine Murphy, a New York
City police officer whose young son was accidentally shot and killed at a
friend’s home, also spoke in favor of the legislation.
"Every day, 14 children are killed in gun homicides,
suicides and unintentional shootings -- that’s an entire classroom of children
every two days," said Mrs. Brady. The memory of Jonesboro, one year ago
today, and the tragedies in Springfield, Oregon and Paducah, Kentucky are
painful reminders of the gun crisis in America affecting our children. The
Children’s Gun Violence Prevention Act will go a long way toward preventing
these senseless deaths and injuries by significantly reducing children’s access
to guns."
"No one can replace what has been lost, but Congress
can and should take steps to prevent future tragedies," said Senator Edward
Kennedy.
Based on the principles of responsibility, education and
safety, the Children’s Gun Violence Prevention Act of 1999 will strengthen the
laws prohibiting children from having access to handguns, hold gun owners
responsible for keeping guns locked away from children, require gun
manufacturers to make safer and childproof guns, and provide support for
research into gun-related injuries and development of gun violence prevention
curriculums in schools.
"Since the tragic school shooting in Jonesboro last
year, Congress has done nothing to stop similar incidents from happening,"
Representative McCarthy said. "As a nurse, I’ve always believed prevention
is the best medicine. The time has come for us to pass preventative measures to
address the deadly combination of children and guns."
Specifically, some of the key provisions included in the
Children’s Gun Violence Prevention Act of 1999 would:
- Impose, after 18 months, new safety standards on the
manufacture and importation of handguns, including a child trigger resistance
standard, a child safety lock, a magazine disconnect safety for pistols, a
manual safety and a drop test requirement.
- Authorize the Consumer Product Safety Commission to study,
test, and evaluate various technologies and means of making guns more
child-resistant.
- Prohibit the sale of an assault weapon (those grandfathered
under the 1994 ban) to anyone under the age of 18.
- Increase the criminal penalties for selling a gun to a
juvenile.
- Require gun store owners to implement minimum safety and
security standards to prevent the theft of firearms.
- Require gun owners to either store loaded guns in a place
that is reasonably inaccessible to children, or use a device to lock the gun,
and imposes criminal penalties for adults who leave firearms available for
illegal use by children.
When the legislation was introduced in the 105th Congress,
it was endorsed by such groups as: the American Academy of Pediatrics, American
Bar Association, American College of Physicians, American Nurses Association,
American Public Health Association, National Association of Children’s
Hospitals, and many others.
# # #
Handgun Control, chaired by Sarah Brady, is the nation’s
largest citizens’ gun control lobbying organization. Based in Washington, DC,
HCI works to enact stronger federal, state and local gun control laws, but does
not seek to ban handguns. Founded in 1974, HCI has more than 400,000 members
nationwide and works with local groups around the country to enact and protect
reasonable gun control laws. More information about HCI and its affiliated
organization, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, can be found on our
website at www.handguncontrol.org.
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