FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Mayor Corradini, Mayor Harmon, members of the Gun Violence Task Force, and distinguished leaders from cities and towns across the nation. I am pleased to be with you today to share my thoughts on three important issues: the problem of youth violence; how easy access to firearms makes violence much more deadly; and most importantly, what steps we can take together to address this critical issue.

As Mayors and members of city councils, you know all too well the magnitude and severity of this problem. You have sat with parents who have buried their children. You have tried to console the inconsolable. If today is a typical day, thirteen young Americans will die from gunshot wounds. Thirteen lives full of hopes and dreams will end in tragedy. Thirteen children who could have contributed to their families, schools, neighborhoods, and communities will have their lives cut short.

The Conference of Mayors has a thirty-year history of providing strong leadership in the fight against crime and violence. As a representative of all federal law enforcement officials, I thank you, and your President, Mayor Corradini, for your leadership and support, and I can assure you that we at the Department of the Treasury -- and our colleagues at the Department of Justice -- have benefited tremendously from our partnership with you. I am here to bring the Administration's perspective on these issues, to ask you to join us as we redouble our efforts to do more, and as the day goes on, to learn more from your experience on the front lines.

For the past six years, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have stood with you in the fight against violent crime: putting more police onto the streets of our neighborhoods and communities; working to get guns out of the hands of those who should not have them; working to remove from our streets certain high-powered weapons that no one should possess; and working closely with your law enforcement authorities to investigate, to arrest, and to prosecute those who violate our firearms laws.

As part of a coordinated effort with you, and with our allies at the state and federal level, this approach has achieved tremendous results. Over the last six years, the number of violent crimes committed with a firearm is down 27 percent. Homicides committed with firearms dropped 24 percent, robbery with firearms 27 percent, and aggravated assault with firearms has dropped 26 percent. But these figures are still too high.

Over the same time period, federal, state, and local firearms convictions have risen sharply, and the number of federal cases in which the firearms offender is sentenced to five or more years in prison is also up substantially.

The Brady background check system also works. Its goal is to prevent felons, juveniles, and other prohibited persons from obtaining a firearm. Over 250,000 such people have been thwarted in their attempts to obtain a firearm because of Brady checks.

In short, during the Clinton/Gore Administration, more police are on the street, more of our most violent offenders are going to prison for longer periods of time, and prohibited persons are having a harder time gaining easy access to weapons.

The Administration continues to work vigorously on its enforcement efforts, and wants to do an even better job -- working hand-in-hand with you and other civic and community leaders -- to make our neighborhoods, communities, towns, rural hamlets, and cities safer places to live.

There is a consensus in our country on how to do this. Americans favor smart, tough, and comprehensive enforcement and prevention solutions to decrease the incidence of firearms violence and to make our communities safer. There is a consensus that certain people, such as violent criminals, felons, and unsupervised juveniles, should not have access to firearms and explosives; that we do not need to have certain types of weapons and ammunition in our schools, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our cities; that firearms and explosives must be bought and sold legally and responsibly; and that firearms must be stored safely and securely by their owners so that fewer of our troubled youth will have access to weapons that can kill and maim, and so that fewer still will end up as needless victims of an accidental pull of the trigger.

The Clinton/Gore Administration has set forth a legislative package designed to pursue these aims. Let me focus on three core principles of these proposals: keeping guns out of the hands of our young people; stopping the illegal trafficking of firearms; and preventing the tragic and accidental deaths that happen all too often as the result of the improper storage of firearms.

Every day, we are reminded that guns and young people are a lethal mix. President Clinton's bill aims to keep guns out of the hands of our young people by raising the age for youth possession of a handgun from 18 to 21, and by banning juvenile possession of semi-automatic assault rifles

We need to target the criminal behind the criminal: the illegal gun trafficker. The President's bill will close the gun show loophole by imposing mandatory record keeping and background check requirements. The President's bill will limit the quantity of handguns any person can purchase to one per month.

Finally, we believe that no parent should mourn a child who has come across a weapon and lost his life in a deadly accident. To this end, the President's bill seeks to prevent tragic and accidental deaths by requiring firearms dealers to provide secure storage or safety devices with every firearm sold, and by holding parents criminally liable for recklessly allowing their children access to their guns, if the children use those guns to cause death or serious bodily injury.

There are other proposals in the President's legislative package also designed to combat the illegal or inappropriate possession, trafficking, and use of firearms. Together, they represent sound, commonsense, and reasonable approaches to this issue. Indeed, the United States Senate took a promising step forward when, with Vice President Gore's tie-breaking vote, it passed legislation that incorporated some, though not all, of these provisions.

As we meet here today, the House of Representatives is considering legislation proposed by the Clinton/Gore Administration that would give law enforcement authorities more tools to help combat the very serious problem of youth violence. Yet, some have come forward to try to defeat or to dilute this sensible legislation.

As President Clinton has remarked many times in connection with these issues, and as he has challenged each of us, we can do better. We must do better. The lives of our children are too important to entrust to the whims of narrow interests.

More federal laws and more federal, state, and local prosecutions are, of course, essential to our success, but standing alone, they will not eliminate the serious problem of youth violence. Federal enforcement authorities continue to need the leadership and assistance of State and local officials -- mayors like yourselves, police and sheriffs' departments, and community group leaders -- to help stop youth violence. On behalf of Secretary Rubin, I can assure you that the Treasury Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms -- ATF -- are fully committed to working with Mayors and with local authorities and community groups to help combat youth violence involving firearms.

Let me share with you some concrete evidence of that commitment. In July 1996, President Clinton and the Treasury Department launched a new kind of law enforcement program, the Youth Gun Crime Interdiction Initiative -- YCGII -- to work with cities in targeting firearm violations involving youth and juveniles.

ATF operates the Youth Crime Gun program in 27 from Los Angeles to Miami and from Houston to Philadelphia. The President's firearms legislation would increase the number of participating cities to 75 by the year 2003. Through the Youth Crime Gun effort, local police and sheriffs' departments work with our dedicated ATF agents to trace all recovered crime guns and to identify and arrest illegal gun traffickers and criminal users of firearms. This program works. It works in Houston, in Chicago, and in St. Louis.

YCGII and crime gun tracing have helped police departments across the country to identify, to investigate, and to arrest those who put guns out onto the streets and into the hands of gang members, minors, felons, and drug traffickers none of whom should have guns. Police departments that understand how their local illegal gun market operates have a far greater ability to cut off that market and, ultimately, to shut it down.

Let me give you one example of what the YCGII program has accomplished. Between January 1989 and May 1996, a gun store owner in St. Louis, Missouri knowingly sold guns to straw purchasers and falsified forms for straw purchasers. ATF investigators determined that some 350 firearms which had been recovered at crime scenes had all gone through that gun store. Other guns distributed from the store had been used in ten murders, including one during a bank robbery. The bottom line here: as a result of crime gun tracing, the owner and two of his employees pled guilty to a variety of firearms violations; they are currently awaiting sentencing.

Anti-trafficking strategies, of course, are but one piece of the enforcement puzzle. There are others. Earlier this year, President Clinton directed Secretary Rubin and Attorney General Reno to pull these pieces together by developing an integrated violence reduction strategy. The President's Directive calls for us to work closely with city leaders and community members to develop innovative strategies, to gather the best of what you, in this room, have done in your cities and communities, and to build on it.

We know that there are promising approaches to build upon, because we have started them together: Project Atlantis in Atlanta; Chicago's Anti-gun Enforcement Program, known as CAGE; Philadelphia's Firearms Trafficking Task Force; and the Los Angeles Police Department's Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Detail are examples of some of the proven programs that can serve as models for other cities. Mayors, city councils, police and sheriffs' departments, community organizations, ATF, U.S. Attorney's offices, and numerous state and local agencies all work together in these programs with a common aim: to help deter youth violence and to identify illegal suppliers of firearms to gang members and drug dealers. As we develop this national strategy, we will come to you for your experience, your insight, and your support, and we hope to be able to support you, as well, as you continue to develop your own strategies.

Before I close, I would like to share with you some personal thoughts and observations. Recently, I went to Colorado to meet with the law enforcement officers and local authorities who responded to the attack at Columbine High School. I don't think that I will ever forget what I saw in Littleton. The school had been stopped cold. As I walked through hallways, I saw all the signs of a vibrant school life: lockers chocked full of books; posters from the student body campaign; and signs cheering on the sports teams. I saw many things that one would expect to see in a place of joy, a place that should have been a haven. But it was no haven. Walls and floors had been pock-marked by bullets and scarred by bombs. The damage, the murder in that place, was brought about by two youths who should never have had access to guns and never have had access to bombs.

Every day, the toll of Columbine is visited on our nation. Everyday, thirteen youngsters disappear forever from our lives as victims of gun violence. As Treasury's Under Secretary for Enforcement, as a representative of federal law enforcement, and, most importantly, as a father of two little girls, I find that statistic unacceptable.

Together, each of us in this room must continue on our important mission. Every life we work to save, every death we work to prevent, will be our victory. Together, we must pledge to recommit ourselves to programs and policies that work, and we can work to develop even better strategies to ensure that our children can live their lives in the freedom and security that should be their birthright.

Thank you.