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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 18, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

I want to commend the Senate for reversing its position of last year and voting overwhelmingly today to require that child safety locks be provided with every gun sold. This was a courageous, common sense vote that will help prevent tragic shootings and gun-related accidents in the future.

I also want to thank Speaker Hastert for agreeing that we should close the gun show loophole and raise the age of handgun ownership from 18 to 21. The Senate should likewise put progress over politics and give its strong backing to these reasonable measures to keep guns out of the hands of children and criminals. I urge Senator Lott to let the Senate keep working on the juvenile crime bill and give every Senator the chance to vote on these common sense provisions.

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