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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 4, 2000

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Last night, the Maryland Legislature took an important step forward to address the problem of gun violence by passing commonsense gun legislation. I commend the Governor and the Legislature for their efforts to enact key gun safety measures that will, among other things, require built-in child safety locks on handguns, ballistics testing for newly manufactured handguns to help solve more gun crimes, and safety training for handgun purchasers.

Maryland joins a growing number of states across the country that are taking actions to make guns safer and to keep guns out of the wrong hands. The Congress should follow their lead and make passage of commonsense gun legislation its top priority. I challenge the Congress to enact gun safety legislation before the one-year anniversary of the Columbine tragedy on April 20th.

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