>>> Continued from previous message
So I'm very proud to be also at the Virginia State Police
Academy.  They tell me that your motto here is, "You can be tough
as nails, but still be courteous."  I think you've modified that
recently, but it's a very good motto.  And that's good advice
because I think, many times, integrity and quiet dignity can take
you far in your life and far in your career.
The war against crime and against drugs must be a cooperative
effort, it can't be a part in there, it must be a cooperative
effort.  We need strong laws and we need tough prosecutors, and
we need tough and sensible judges.  But it's even more important
that well trained state police and local police and county
sheriffs and all that we have in this room today.  Because, as
the Governor pointed out, you're the ones who are really on the
front lines everyday.  Everyday, somebody in this audience takes
a risk and you're out there everyday for a reason.  Because you
believe in what you do, you're proud of what you do, and you
understand what would happen without your presence.  So all of
you at the Academy and on duty across Virginia in whatever
capacity, certainly deserve the respect and gratitude of every
citizen.  Again, as the Governor pointed out, certainly you have
mine.
I'm an old county attorney.  In our little county, we didn't
prosecute many people in those days; most of them were bad
checks.  But we did have violent crime and I must say there's
been a change, as the Governor pointed out, in attitudes over the
years.  In the good old days, we worried about the victims more
than the criminals.  And then we've had to have security worry
more about the criminals than the victims.  But now, I believe,
because of the leadership of Governor Allen and others in this
state and states all across America, we're getting our priorities
right again.  We concern ourselves, yes, with the rights of
defendants.  The rights of criminals, but we also concern
ourselves with the rights of victims.  And I'm a strong believer
in the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, and I
have fought many battles over the years to keep the government
from infringing on that right.
But everybody understands that some people must not own guns,
either because they forfeited that right, or for a variety of
other very common sense reasons.  They shouldn't have guns.  And
the question is, how can we separate those who may not own guns
without infringing on the rights of those who may - the law-
abiding citizens - the people the Second Amendment is talking
about?  And that's what instant check technology is all about.
And I came to Virginia today because this is where it started.
This is where it started in 1989 and I learned today, Colonel,
that it's copyrighted now.  The Virginia system is copyrighted.
Other states all across America - as the Captain explained to me
back here - are using this all across America now what started
right here in the State of Virginia.  So you've led the nation
and, as the Governor pointed out, you can go...In fact, we
watched about three transactions before we came in here.  Only
after you go through a transaction, only after the state finds
the buyer eligible, the decision can be sent to the dealer in an
average of - I said - about two minutes.  The Governor says about
three minutes.  There was a compromise and we'll say about two
and a half minutes.  But they were very rapid as we stood there
and watched the two or three being checked.
In this way you've protected the Second Amendment rights of law
abiding Virginians while keeping more than - in fact we have this
first chart - more than ten thousand disqualified persons from
buying guns.  It's more than 10,020-some guns have been kept out
of the hands of dangerous criminals and other prohibitive persons
through Virginia's instant check program, as the Colonel pointed
out earlier, and has prevented a lot of crime.  A lot of crime
has been prevented because of the Instant Check system in
Virginia.
What I've been saying way back there, not last week, not
yesterday, not the day before, years and years and years ago,
that we need a program across America, in this case the same kind
of a program.  And the current Federal law provides for a five
day waiting period for the purchase of hand guns but, as shown on
the chart on my left, the so-called "Brady States" - those are
twenty-five states that rely on the five day waiting period on my
left.  The next is the instant check; we have seventeen states
now with the instant check.  We have so-called "Non-Brady
States", those are the ones with the instant check.  And with the
longer waiting period and the licensing requirements, we have
twenty-seven states.  So there are already twenty-seven states
and territories that are exempt from the federal waiting period.
And seventeen of those, as I said, have instant check and that's
good news.  Because the instant check is a lot more effective
than a waiting period and screening out those who are legally
prohibited from buying a gun.
And after all, the Brady Law doesn't guarantee a background check
in every case.  The law requires only that law enforcement make
"reasonable efforts" - quote - reasonable efforts to find out
whether someone has the right to buy a gun and even that
provision may be an unconscionable burden on the states as one
Federal Court of Appeals has already held and it's now going to
go to the Supreme Court to decide.
Under the instant check...I want to try to make this distinction
for the media because I know they'd like to write off the Brady
Bill and the assault weapons.  We've got to talk about getting to
the root of the problem.  Under the instant check, we'll have a
guaranteed background check every time a purchase is attempted -
one big difference.  As I said, I have supported it for almost
twenty years.  I sponsored the law setting up the Interstate
Identification Index which is part of the FBI's National Crime
Information Center.  We've got millions of names there of people
who shouldn't have guns.  And once all fifty states are tied in
as Virginia is, it's going to have a big, big impact.
And it's long been my view that we ought to have this national
instant check program.  Eight years ago, I introduced legislation
aimed at having instant check not for some, but for all firearm
purchases, all guns.  All guns, underscored and underlined.  The
bill passed.  Under the Brady Bill, the instant check system is
supposed to be up and running by the end of 1998 when the five
day waiting period is phased out.  But I must say, regrettably
for the past three years, we haven't been doing much to get it in
place by the year 1998.  They're still studying the issue and I
believe at the rate we're going, we're going to miss that target
date by a long, long time.  Of course, there'd be another
Administration - I'll talk about that in a minute.
But the Clinton Administration needs to get off the dime.  There
is no good reason we can't have a system like Virginia's at the
federal level and we can.  And my Administration will be
committed to having a national instant check system online across
America in fifty states.  And not just by the end of 1998.  If we
give it the attention it deserves - and, as President, I will -
we can beat that deadline by a full year.  We'll have the system
ready with all fifty states plugged into a national database of
relevant information about those who shouldn't own guns.  And
we'll do it by the end of 1997, not 1998, but 1997.  Into my
first year in the White House.
Now, how are we going to get the job done?  Well first, I will
sign an Executive Order in January, 1997 directing an immediate
review of federal and state instant check efforts and my Attorney
General will then convene a conference of law enforcement
organizations across America early next year to find the best way
to get all of them hooked up to the national system.  Without
wasting any time, without any more studies, without
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