"In my State of the Union address I challenged our country to focus on the problem of youth violence.... We're fighting with a strategy that is coordinated and unrelenting, that does rely upon national, state and local prosecutors and politicians and, above all, on citizens working with us."

-President Bill Clinton,
May 13, 1996

• Today, President Clinton is announcing a seventeen city crackdown on crime gun traffickers, specifically targeted at those who peddle their arms to kids. It will entail a Federal and local law enforcement partnership -- between police chiefs, local prosecutors, and federal investigators and prosecutors -- that will trace firearms found on youths back to the crime gun traffickers.

• Firearms violence is a scourge on our society. Homicides committed by young people with firearms have nearly tripled since 1985, and other types of gun-related violence have been on the rise. Too many guns are in the hands of our nation's children.

• Working in cooperation with state and local law enforcement in unprecedented fashion, federal law enforcement has successfully disrupted numerous illicit gun markets across the country over the last three years.

• This new initiative will strengthen those ongoing efforts to clamp down on these illegal markets, especially those that provide crime guns to kids. In these seventeen cities, for the first time, every time a gun is used in a crime and seized by law enforcement, it will be tracked through a national tracing system. Law enforcement will use that trace information to help identify and locate illegal gun traffickers.

• The program utilizes an innovative computer software system -- developed by the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) -- that examines crime gun trace information and provides law enforcement with crucial investigative leads about the sources of these guns. By analyzing patterns of gun trafficking that exist in an area, law enforcement can develop more effective strategies to target illegal gun traffickers for prosecution, particularly those who put guns into the hands of our nation's young people.

• President Clinton will direct Attorney General Reno and Secretary Rubin to implement this program in seventeen pilot cities. In addition, they will work with law enforcement at every level to ensure that all crime guns seized in each of these cities are traced and will develop joint investigative and prosecutive strategies to combat the problem of illegal gun trafficking. Reno and Rubin will also report back on the first- year accomplishments of this project.

• This new initiative builds upon existing Clinton Administration partnerships with state and local law enforcement, such as the very successful Anti-Violent Crime Initiative, which was launched two years ago and has resulted in numerous important prosecutions. It is also another step by the Clinton Administration -- like the Brady Law, the 1994 Crime Bill and assault weapons ban, and the Gun-Free Schools Act -- to reduce firearm violence in our streets and schools.

• The seventeen pilot cities, each of diverse location and size, have been selected because of a committed record of fighting youth firearm violence. They include:
  * Atlanta, GA
  * Boston, MA
  * Baltimore, MD
  * Birmingham, AL
  * Bridgeport, AL
  * Cleveland, OH
  * Inglewood, CA
  * Jersey City, NJ
  * Memphis, TN
  * Milwaukee, WI
  * New York, NY
  * Richmond, VA
  * Salinas, CA
  * San Antonio, TX
  * Seattle, WA
  * St. Louis, MO
  * Washington, DC

From NRA web page

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           NRA Public Affairs
July 8, 1996                                        (703) 267-3820

      Breaking News: Clinton Sees Merit in Enforcing the Law

But the Best-Kept Secret of the Boston Gun Project Remains...Secret
                                 
Almost four years into his presidency, Bill Clinton sees the
merit of enforcing existing laws, the National Rifle Association
of America observed today.  

"The purpose of today's presidential press conference is
politics," said NRA Institute for Legislative Action Executive
Director Tanya K. Metaksa.  "The answer to youth crime is
prosecutions, not press conferences."

PRESIDENTIAL LAG.  "For decades, NRA has called for enforcing
existing laws, and we've urged that the power of police and
prosecutors be brought to bear on illegal gun traffickers.  
Clinton's 'initiative' lags behind NRA and federal agencies as
well.  It was sixteen months ago -- February 1995 -- when John
Magaw, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms director,
testified before Congress on Project LEAD: 'We have initiated a
high-priority study to trace firearms recovered from ...
juveniles who use firearms to commit violent crimes,' Magaw
testified.  'The principal purpose of this initiative is to ...
identify and stem the illegal flow of firearms to juveniles ...
and apprehend and prosecute adults who violate firearms laws by
trafficking to juveniles.'"

PRESIDENTIAL PERFORMANCE.  The President correctly noted that
gun-related youth crime is up.  Why, then, according to the U.S.
Sentencing Commission, are prosecutions of federal gun crimes
down 16 percent since President Clinton took office?   

STILL SECRET: THE KENNEDY PLAN.  In today's ceremony, Vice
President Al Gore was "honored" to introduce "Professor David
Kennedy, who's worked very hard to make this initiative a
success."  Said Mrs. Metaksa: "The Clinton initiative is not a
shadow of the Kennedy plan, a creative, comprehensive plan that
focuses on offenders."

A Research Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Kennedy spoke at the National Youth Gang Symposium sponsored by
the U.S. Department of Justice in Dallas June 17-20 and attended
by NRA CrimeStrike.  In the plenary session titled "Firearms:
What Can Be Done?" Kennedy presented the recommendations of
the Boston Gun Project.  In addition to overhauling gun trace
practices, Kennedy also recommended strategies like deterrence. 
An example:

    - Control violent gangs by letting them know in advance and
    in no uncertain terms   even by posting flyers   that the
    level of gang-related gun crime will determine which gang is
    subjected to the most severe police crackdown, and institute
    a community-wide program in which police and probation
    officers announce that because of gang use of guns in crime,
    there will be zero-tolerance for any infraction of the law
    and then enforce all laws and ordinances vigorously
     including probation violations, vagrancy and public
    drinking.

BAD NEWS FOR GUN CONTROL ENTHUSIASTS.  From Kennedy's Boston Gun
Project's findings reported at the Department of Justice
symposium:  "The largest source state of kid's guns in Boston is
Massachusetts."  Of the guns used in crime by juveniles:  41.7%
were acquired in-state, compared to 29.0% acquired out-of-state,
leading Kennedy to recommend that authorities "focus on the local
market."

Juveniles who used guns to murder were "well known to local
authorities."  Of the known 64 juvenile murderers, before the
murder:  95% had been arraigned in Massachusetts courts; 50% had
been sentenced to probation; 25% had been committed to a youth
correctional facility; and 23% were actually on probation when
they committed the last murder.  Collectively, these juvenile
murderers had been charged with the following crimes before the
latest murder:  3 prior homicides;  68 armed violent offenses; 
63 unarmed violent offenses;  33 firearms offenses;  7 offenses
involving other weapons;  72 drug offenses;  133 property
offenses;  and, 66 disorder offenses for an "average of more than
seven offenses per killer" before the latest murder.

"It's clear that the Clinton approach to gun-related crime is a
whimsical supply-side approach.  It's also clear from the experts
that youth violent crime can be reduced only by a demand-side
approach.  Target young offenders who are, as Professor Kennedy
puts it, 'well known to local authorities,' and you'll see
results.  You'll also see prosecutions, not press conferences."
 
              -- the nra: people preventing crime --

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This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
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