There are already thousands of federal and state gun laws on the books. It is the job of the Executive Branch to enforce these laws. Unfortunately, the Clinton Administration has not.

Between 1996 and 1998 the Justice Department mounted exactly one prosecution under the Brady Act dealing with background checks for gun purchasers. In that same period, the Administration prosecuted only 21 cases in the entire nation for transferring a handgun or ammunition to a juvenile. Congress has decided it can no longer wait for the Administration to fulfill its role in enforcing current gun laws because clearly it is not going to do its job. So the House passed Project Exile: The Safe Streets and Neighborhoods Act, H.R. 4051.

This bill sends the right message. It lets states qualify for grants if they reduce gun crimes by enforcing gun laws already on the books and sentencing criminals who use guns to tough prison time. States meeting these requirements can use their funds to hire and train more judges, prosecutors or probation officers. Or, they could increase prison capacity or develop information-sharing systems to build case files on serious offenders, depending on the needs of the particular state.

This is a good, common-sense approach, and I will continue looking for ways to take criminals off the streets without trampling all over the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.