|
PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT
GORE
Making Our Communities Safer
"Crime in America
has dropped for the past seven years -- the longest decline on record, thanks
to a national consensus we helped to forge on community police, sensible gun
safety laws, and effective prevention. But nobody believes America is safe
enough. So let's set a higher goal: let's make America the safest big
country in the world."
-- President
Bill Clinton
State of the Union Address, January 27,
2000
Bringing Crime Rates Down
Lowest Crime Rates in a Generation. When President Clinton and
Vice President Gore took office in 1993, the violent crime rate in America had
more than quadrupled during the previous three decades. Since then, America has
experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. The overall crime
rate is the lowest in 25 years, and in 1999 crime fell for the eighth
consecutive year nationwide. Violent crime rate fell 7 percent in 1999 and 27
percent since 1993. Since 1993, the murder rate is down more than 25 percent to
its lowest point since 1967, and gun violence has declined by more than 35
percent. [Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998 National Crime
Victimization Survey; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports
for the United States 1998, 1999; FY 2001 Budget, p. 107]
Juvenile Arrests Down. In 1998, the nation saw an 8 percent drop
in the juvenile violent crime arrests. The number of juvenile gun homicide
offenders has dropped by 57 percent since 1993. [Federal Bureau
of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1998,
1999]
Decline in Juvenile Homicides Due Almost Entirely to Decline in
Homicides Committed With Guns. Guns
are the key variable in the recent rise and fall of juvenile homicide. The rise
in murders of juveniles and by juveniles from the mid-1980's to their peak
in 1993 was almost entirely firearms-related -- as was their subsequent decline
since 1993. [Justice
Department Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Kids and
Guns, 3/00]
School Violence Rates Drop. Although serious problems still exist,
school crime has decreased by more than one-third during the Clinton-Gore
Administration. In 1993, there were 155 school-related crimes per 1000
students. The rate dropped to 102 per 1000 in 1997. The number of students
carrying a weapon to school and students getting into fights in school has also
dropped significantly since 1993. [U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1999
Annual Report on School Safety; FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1999]
Keeping Guns Out of the Hands of Criminals
More Than Half a Million Felons, Fugitives and Domestic Abusers
Denied Guns. Since taking effect in 1994, the Brady Law has
helped to prevent a total of more than 536,000 felons, fugitives, domestic
abusers, and other prohibited purchasers from buying guns. In November 1998,
the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) took effect under
the Brady Law, allowing access to a fuller set of records that law enforcement
officials can use to conduct checks of all prospective gun purchases -- not
just for handguns. As of March 2000, NICS has conducted over 10 million
background checks on gun purchasers, and stopped an estimated 179,000 illegal
gun sales. [Bureau of Justice Statistics, Background
Checks for Firearm Transfers, 1999, 6/00]
Taking Deadly Assault Weapons Off America's Streets. In 1994,
President Clinton and Vice President Gore successfully fought for passage of
the assault weapons ban, which prohibits the manufacture and importation of 19
of the deadliest assault weapons and large capacity ammunition clips that hold
more than 10 rounds of ammunition. To protect the rights of law-abiding
citizens, more than 650 types of hunting and sporting weapons are specifically
exempted by the ban. [Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act, PL 103-22]
Banning the Importation of
Modified Deadly Weapons.
In 1998, President Clinton announced a general ban on the importation of more
than 50 non-recreational, modified assault weapons. The Treasury Department
concluded that modified semiautomatic assault rifles that accept large capacity
military magazines "or LCMM rifles" are not "particularly suitable for or
readily adaptable to sporting purposes" and are generally not importable. The
more than 50 models of firearms affected by the decision are modified versions
of military assault weapons that were banned by the Bush Administration in 1989
or by the assault weapons ban of 1994. [Treasury Department Press Release,
4/6/98; Presidential Memorandum, 11/14/97]
Cracking Down on the Most
Serious Gun Criminals.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore have established a tough records of
enforcement of our nation's gun laws by helping law enforcement take
serious gun criminals out of our communities and put them where they belong:
behind bars. The number of federal firearms cases prosecuted by the U.S.
Attorneys increased 16%, from 4,754 in 1992 to 5,500 in 1999. And, by providing
federal, state and local law enforcement and prosecutors with the tools they
need to crack down on gun criminals, overall gun prosecutions have increased 22
percent. In addition, the average sentence for federal gun offenders has
increased by nearly two years, and federal law enforcement is successfully
targeting the most serious gun offenders. Between 1992 and 1998, the number of
of federal gun defendants sentenced to prison for three years or more went up
20 percent, and the number sentenced to five years or more went up 12 percent.
[Justice Department Press
Release, 1/18/00]
Largest Gun Enforcement Initiative in History. This year,
President Clinton has proposed the largest gun enforcement initiative ever. The
initiative would provide a record $280 million
to add 500 new federal ATF agents and
inspectors to target violent gun criminals and illegal gun traffickers that
supply guns to criminals and juveniles, and fund over 1,000 new federal, state,
and local gun prosecutors to take dangerous gun offenders off the streets. This
initiative would also expand the ATF's crime gun tracing program by
providing tracing equipment and training to 250 additional law enforcement
agencies and by creating the first nationally integrated ballistics testing
system. The new ballistics testing system will help law enforcement use the
unique "fingerprints" of bullets or shell casings left at the scene of a crime
to identify gun criminals -- even in the absence of a firearm. [Justice
Department Press Release, 1/18/00]
Strengthening Penalties that
Apply to Gun-Carrying Criminals and Drug Traffickers. In November 1998, the President signed a law to
clarify and strengthen the federal penalties that apply to violent criminals
and drug felons who commit crimes while carrying a gun. This new law makes it
clear that violent criminals and drug felons who possess a firearm during the
commission of a federal crime are subject to an additional -- and mandatory --
sentence of five years. The law provides that in addition to the penalties that
apply for underlying violent or drug crimes -- criminals receive a mandatory
minimum sentence of at least seven years for brandishing a firearm, and of at
least 10 years if the firearm is discharged. [White House, Office of the Press
Secretary, 11/13/98]
Launched the Youth Crime Gun
Interdiction Initiative. In
1996, President Clinton launched the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative
(YCGII) in 17 cities to help trace crime guns to their source, as well as
identify and arrest violent gun criminals and the adults who illegally supply
firearms to youth. Since then, the President has expanded the YCGII initiative
to 37 cities. ATF agents now conduct more than 200,000 crime gun traces for
local law enforcement every year -- nearly four times the number of crime guns
traced in 1993. Since 1996, ATF has initiated over 640 gun trafficking
investigations related to youth in YCGII cities that involved over 27,000 crime
guns. The President's FY 2001 budget proposes to increase YCGII to 50
cities with more ATF agents and additional resources to help more cities to
trace crime guns. [White
House Fact Sheet, 4/27/99; FY 2001 Budget, p. 110; ATF, Youth Crime Gun
Interdiction Initiative 27 Communities, 2/99; ATF, Commerce In Firearms in the
United States, 2/00.]
Working to Pass Common-Sense Gun Laws. President Clinton and Vice
President Gore have repeatedly called on Congress to build on the success of
the Brady Law by quickly passing a set of common sense gun safety measures
designed to keep guns out of the wrong hands and save lives. The Administration
has proposed legislation, that passed in the Senate last year with a
tie-breaking vote by Vice President Gore, that would require background checks
on all firearm sales at gun shows; require child safety locks for every handgun
sold; bar the importation of large-capacity ammunition clips; and ban the most
violent juvenile offenders from owning guns for life.
Historic Agreement with Smith
and Wesson. On March 17, 2000,
President Clinton announced an unprecedented partnership between the government
and Smith and Wesson -- the largest handgun manufacturer in the nation -- to
bring about meaningful reforms in the way the industry does business. The
agreement represents the first time a major gun manufacturer has committed to
fundamentally change the way guns are designed, distributed and marketed. Key
provisions of the agreement include new design standards to make guns safer and
prevent accidental shootings and gun deaths, such as locking devices and smart
guns; and new sales and distribution controls to help keep guns out of the
hands of criminals and help law enforcement crack down on illegal gun
traffickers, such as cutting off dealers who sell disproportionate numbers of
guns that turn up in crimes. [White House Fact Sheet, 3/17/00]
Making Schools and Neighborhoods Safer
Putting 100,000 More Police on the Streets. In 1999, ahead of schedule
and under budget, the Clinton-Gore Administration met its commitment to fund an
additional 100,000 police officers for our communities. As a part of the COPS
Program, the President announced a distressed neighborhood grant program to
increase community policing in high-crime and underserved neighborhoods. To
help keep crime at record lows, in fall 1999, the President won funding for the
first installment toward his goal to hire up to 50,000 more officers by 2005.
This year, the Clinton-Gore budget includes over $1 billion to continue the
successful COPS initiative to hire more officers, hire new community
prosecutors, give police the tools and technology they need to fight crime, and
to fund community-wide crime fighting efforts. [Justice
Department, COPS Program, 5/12/99; National Economic Council, 11/18/99; FY 2001
Budget, p. 109]
More Police Officers in Schools. President Clinton and Vice
President Gore's community policing grants have been used to fund over 2,600
police officers to work in schools to help improve school safety. These
officers are strengthening partnerships between local law enforcement and
schools, and help them to focus on school crime, drug use and discipline
problems.
Giving Police the Tools They Need to Fight Crime. As part of his
COPS initiative, President Clinton won $230 million in FY 2000 to provide law
enforcement with the latest crime-fighting and crime-solving technology. This
funding will help make crime mapping technology -- which enables police
agencies to track crime hot spots and target their resources to where they are
most needed -- more widely available, to improve compatibility among law
enforcement communications systems, and aid development and expansion of
innovative tools to help law enforcement fight crime.
Improving Officer Safety. In
June 1998, President Clinton signed the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act
to provide grants to state and local law enforcement agencies to purchase
bulletproof vests for their officers. In its first year, the Bulletproof
Vest Partnership Grant Act helped state and local law enforcement purchase
92,500 bulletproof vests. The Clinton-Gore Administration in 2000 announced its
support to double funding for the successful program and extend it for three
more years. [White House, Office of the Press Secretary,
6/16/98]
Fighting Hate Crimes. The President enacted the Hate Crimes
Sentencing Enhancement Act in 1994. He held the historic White House Conference
on Hate Crimes, where he called for passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act
-- bipartisan legislation which would strengthen hate crimes laws and make it
clear that America will not tolerate acts of violence based on race, color,
gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability. In April
2000, President Clinton held a strategy session on hate crimes at the White
House where he met with state, local, and
federal law enforcement officials to emphasize the need for federal hate crimes
legislation and to highlight
successful partnerships between various law enforcement offices in prosecuting
hate crimes. The President also released two new resources to fight hate
crimes -- a local prosecutor's guide to preventing and responding to hate
crimes, and a "promising practices" report that describes successful anti-hate
partnerships. The President's FY 2001 budget includes $20 million to
promote police integrity and for hate crimes training for federal, state, and
local law enforcement. [White House, Office of the Press
Secretary, 11/10/97, 4/25/00]
Working to End Racial Profiling. To help determine where and when
racial profiling occurs, President Clinton directed the Departments of Justice,
Treasury and Agriculture to collect data on the race, ethnicity, and gender of
individuals subject to certain stops by federal law enforcement. The President
also supports legislation sponsored by Congressman John Conyers to help state
and local police forces to collect the same data. The President has also
supported increased resources for police integrity and ethics training and to
improve the diversity of local police forces.
New Tools in the Fight Against Domestic Violence. President Clinton
championed and signed into law the Violence Against Women Act, bolstering local
law enforcement, prosecution, and victims' services to better address
these crimes. The President has more than quadrupled funding to domestic
violence shelters and signed the Interstate Stalking Punishment and Prevention
Act, making it a Federal crime to cross state lines intending to injure or
harass another person. The Clinton-Gore Administration has also established a
nationwide 24-hour Domestic Violence Hotline, which provides immediate crisis
intervention, counseling and referrals for those in need.
Protecting Children from Sex Offenders. President Clinton signed
Megan's Law and the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually
Violent Offender Registration Act, requiring states to set up sex offender
registration systems and require community notification when sex offenders are
released from prison. [White House, Office of the Press
Secretary, 5/17/96]
Supervising Released Offenders. Two-thirds of all prisoners are
re-arrested for new offenses within three years of release. To combat this
problem, President Clinton's FY2001 budget calls for greater supervision
of the 500,000 inmates who will leave prison this year and reenter communities
in order to address community safety concerns, lower recidivism rates and
promote responsible parenting. This initiative would include $60 million to
create "reentry partnerships" and "reentry courts", complemented by $75 million
for Responsible Reintegration for Young Offenders grants from the Department of
Labor and $10 million for substance abuse and mental health services through
the Department of Health and Human Services.
Breaking the Cycle of Drug Crime
and Recidivism. To reduce drug
use and repeat drug offenses, President Clinton and Vice President Gore fought
for and signed legislation enacting the Zero Tolerance Drug Supervision
Initiative to require states to develop comprehensive plans to drug test
prisoners and parolees. In addition, the Administration has increased the
number of federal inmates receiving residential substance abuse treatment from
1,135 in 1992 to 10,816 in 1999. The 1994 Crime Act has helped to expand the
number of drug courts – which have been shown to reduce future drug use
and recidivism – from a dozen in 1994 to more than 416 in October 1999. An
additional 279 drug courts are in the planning stages. [ONDCP, FY 2001 Budget Summary; ONDCP,
2000 Annual Report, p. 62; FBOP Report to Congress, 1/99]
Keeping Guns Out of Our Nation's Schools. In October 1994,
President Clinton signed into law the Gun-Free Schools Act, and issued a
Presidential Directive to enforce "zero tolerance" for guns in schools. Nearly
10,000 students were expelled from public schools for bringing a firearm
to school in the 1996-98 school years under zero tolerance policies.
[U.S. Dept. of Education, Report on State Implementation of the
Gun-Free Schools Act, 1997-98]
Coordinating the Federal Government's Response to Youth
Violence. In 1999, President Clinton created the White House Council on
Youth Violence to coordinate youth violence research and programs throughout
the federal government, and to make information derived from the federal
government's efforts more accessible to the public. Members of the Council
include the Attorney General and the Secretaries of Health and Human Services,
Education, and Labor, as well as the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget.
Engaging the Private Sector in Youth Violence Prevention: National
Campaign Against Youth Violence. In August 1999, President Clinton
announced the formation of an independent, national campaign to engage the
private sector in addressing the problem of youth violence. The Campaign has
developed anti-violence activities including a major media campaign, concerts,
town hall meetings, and in-school and after-school programs. The Campaign also
highlights effective youth violence initiatives in cities across the country.
Preventing Violence with the Safe Schools/Healthy Students
Initiative. Evidence shows that a comprehensive, integrated community-wide
approach is an effective way to address the problems of school violence and
alcohol and other drug abuse and promote healthy childhood. In 1998, President
Clinton unveiled the Administration's Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative
(SS/HS), an unprecedented joint effort involving the Departments of Education,
Justice, and Health and Human Services to help communities design and implement
a comprehensive approach, including educational, mental health, social service,
and law enforcement services for to help combat youth violence. SS/HS has
provided $146 million to 77 local education authorities who have established
formal partnerships with local mental health and law enforcement agencies. This
year, the President has called for a $100 million expansion of the Safe
Schools/Healthy Students Initiative.
Developed Comprehensive Anti-Drug Strategy Including a $195 Million
National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The President appointed Barry
McCaffrey, a four-star general, to lead the Clinton-Gore Administration's
anti-drug strategy as the nation's Drug Czar. In 1997, President Clinton
and Director McCaffrey launched the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign,
the largest targeted effort ever to teach youth about the dangers of drugs. The
Campaign uses the full power of the modern media to encourage young people to
reject drug use, and helps parents, teachers and other responsible adults talk
to kids about drugs and get more involved in the lives of young people. Illicit
drug use among young people age 12-17 declined from 1997 to 1998, and the
average age of first-time use went up. Overall drug use is down since its peak
in the 1970's, drug-related murders have fallen by 48 percent since 1992, and
youth drug use is leveling off or declining. [Department of
Health and Human Services Press Release 12/17/99; White House at Work,
2/8/99]
August 2000 |
