President Clinton blasts 'corrupt gun dealers.'

Shooting Industry, Oct, 1997 by Jim Schneider

"Make no mistake, gun traffickers are funneling guns to lawless youth," Clinton said.

Clinton then announced he was expanding his gun tracing program, the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative, to 10 new cities: Los Angeles, Calif.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Chicago, Ill.; Detroit, Mich.; Houston, Tex.; Miami, Fla.; Tucson, Ariz.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Gary, Ind.; and Cincinnati, Ohio.

The president noted that a year ago he directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to follow Boston's example and trace guns used in crime by "young criminals" in 17 communities.

Clinton also presented the results of ATF's "Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative" study, which contained an analysis of the illegal youth firearms markets in the 17 communities.

One of those findings was that in 15 of the 17 sites, the largest supply of crime guns successfully traced came from retail sources within the state.

That finding flies directly in the face of Rep. Charles Schumer's cries about the need for more laws to stop the interstate smuggling of firearms.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) are busily pushing "gun shop safety" legislation.

In introducing S-922, the "Gun Shop Safety Act of 1997," Lautenberg declared, "Incredible as it may seem, there are no federal minimum standards for security of premises and merchandise at gun shops."

Lautenberg pointed out that, "During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, 19 gun stores guns. One pawnshop lost 970 guns, while were looted and robbed of about 4,000 another outlet was robbed of 1,150 guns."

He then cited an incident where a gun dealer was killed in Washington State and the robbers sold 40 of the 75 stolen guns on the streets of Seattle that night.

Lautenberg said 30,000 firearms have been stolen from gun dealers since 1994. S-922 calls upon the Secretary of the Treasury to issue regulations that establish minimum firearm safety and security standards that shall apply to federally licensed firearm dealers. This must be done within one year of passage of the bill.