Statement of Senator Dianne Feinstein on the 10 Year Anniversary of the 101 California Shooting
June 27, 2003

"Ten years ago next Tuesday - on July 1, 1993 - Gian Luigi Ferri walked into 101 California Street in San Francisco carrying two high-capacity TEC-9 assault pistols. Within minutes, Ferri had murdered eight people, and wounded six others. This was a galvanizing event, which shook San Francisco and the entire nation. It inspired me to write the assault weapons bill, to begin a very difficult campaign to pass it, to keep it in existence, and now to obtain its reauthorization.

Powerful forces fought the legislation, compelled its repeal by the House of Representatives, and are mobilizing today to fight against its reauthorization.

My 1993 legislation banned the domestic manufacture of military-style assault weapons. It also banned the domestic manufacture of clips drums or strips of more than 10 rounds. The goal of the bill was to drive down the supply of these weapons over time and make them more difficult to obtain, and to eventually get them off our streets. And in the years following the enactment of the ban, crimes using assault weapons were reduced dramatically.

Now, 10 years later, we are faced with another dilemma - the assault weapons ban will expire next September if Congress does nothing. This is why Senator Chuck Schumer and I have proposed legislation to permanently reauthorize the ban.

The legislation would also close a loophole in that law which has allowed more than 50 million large capacity ammunition clips to be approved for importation into this country over the last eight years. The clip ban is critical because there are millions of these clips and drums - some as large as 250 bullets - which magnify the killing power of the weapons. It is these large clips, drums, and strips that allow lone gunmen, or small groups of teenagers, to cause so much death in such a short amount of time.

But this is an uphill fight. President Bush has said that he supports re-authorizing the ban and closing the clip importation loophole. It is unclear, however, whether the President will truly put his energy behind re-authorizing the assault weapons ban, or whether he will let it die before it ever gets to his desk. And Tom Delay and his NRA friends have said that they will try to kill the bill and not even let it come up for a vote.

In memory of all those who were killed at 101 California and all the other victims of assault weapons, I urge the President to back up his words with action and make the reauthorization of the assault weapons ban a priority. I also urge every American to stand up and be counted as a supporter of this effort - this is critical if we are to win this battle against senseless violence."

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