The problem is caused by the failure of the Department of State to regulate the importation of surplus firearms and heavy weapons and destructive devices under the ample authority granted it to do so by Congress in the 1954 Mutual Security Act.

The problem is the failure of the Secretary of Treasury to enact forceful and rigid regulations to carry out provisions of the Federal Firearms Act under authority granted him by Congress in Section 907.

The problem is caused by lax prosecutors, lenient judges, and faint-hearted probation officers who repeatedly turn loose the hardened criminal to continue preying on society.

For the problem, gentlemen, is crime-and the criminal. It is particularly the repeat offender who uses firearms to rob, rape, assault and murder.

And I for one-am getting just a bit tired of this Congress being made the whipping boy for failure of these departments to act under the ample authority granted in existing law. Surely, it should be obvious that the constant cry that "present laws are ineffective" serves but one purpose it focuses the spotlight of public attention away from the department's own failures and shortcomings in enforcing existing law.

We are being asked to legislate without facts. We are being asked to enact rigid restrictions on millions of decent Americans without full knowledge of the cause and the source of the problem.

I say to the Attorney General-tell this Congress how many cases have been brought under Section 901 where it is illegal for a felon to transport or receive firearms or ammunition that moved in interstate commerce? How many machine gun and sawed-off shotgun bandits have been prosecuted for violation of the National Firearms Act?

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I say to the Secretary of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service-how many prosecutions have been made under Internal Revenue Code against armed robbers for failure to declare, pay or other evasion of income taxes?

I say to the law enforcement officers of this Nation-how vigorous is your en forcement of local and state laws on possession and use of firearms by the criminal?

And I say to our own great Federal Bureau of Investigation-give this Congress and the American people the facts on criminal use of firearms. Tell us how and where the criminal gets his weapon. Is it stolen? Does he buy it under the counter in a roadside gin mill? Or from a hock shop? Or by mail order? Tell this Congress how many of the 5,634 homicides during 1965 were crimes of passionwhere any weapon at hand would have been used-and how many were cold blooded murders? We cannot enact fair, equitable and effective legislation without these facts, for I am convinced that our problem is the criminal. And I frankly see no provision in H.R. 5384 which will stop him. This Congress needs facts--not opinions.

We need factual information on how effective, and how strong a deterrent to crime, are stiff, mandatory penalties. Let me cite but two examples:

Armed robbery of Post Offices, which hold large sums of money and are generally unguarded, carries a mandatory 25-year federal sentence. There were but 66 snch robberies last year.

Armed robbery of a bank carries a lighter sentence from suspension to a maximum of 25 years, depending upon the leniency of the judge. There were 1,070 bank robberies last year.

But the severeness of the penalties is reversed on burglaries.

Burglarizing a Post Office carries a light penalty of up to five years, plus a fine of up to $1,000.

Burglarizing a bank carries a stiffer penalty of up to 20 years, and a fine of up to $5.000.67

It is obvious the criminals know-and avoid-crimes with stiff penalties. Last year, they burglarized 1,763 Post Offices and only 467 banks. 1779 96

I tried to obtain detailed statistical information showing the criminal use of firearms for three major crimes of violence within each State. Such is not listed in the F.B.I. Uniform Crime Report, and it was necessary to compile my own analysis which I attach as Appendix A. Compare the few within your own State who use firearms illegally to the great number of licensed hunters, who contribute heavily to our economy through license fees and purchase of equipment and accessories. I found it enlightening to know that firearms were used in less than one-third of the total violent crimes committed in this Nation. T

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Again, I say the call for this restrictive legislation is prémature, for this Congress has not been given anything but glittering generalities to support enactment of restrictive firearms legislation.

Let me state emphatically-if, after a period of stringent enforcement and vigorous prosecution of violators under existing federal law-it is determined that additional legislation is necessary, I will be the first to support it. I will support amendments to present federal law to curb the unrestricted mail order sale of firearms to juveniles, narcotics addicts and mental incompetents-although I earnestly believe the Treasury Department can cure this problem under existing authority by re-writing its regulations. I will support amendments to present law to stop the sale of bazookas, grenades, heavy weapons and other destructive devices—although I believe the Secretary of State has ample authority to close off importation of such, and surely the President has authority to stop the public sale of such by our own military establishment. I will support amendments to present law to increase moderately the existing fee and license cost to help pay for more adequate enforcement of these statutes.

But I cannot support what I consider to be a premature-and wholly unjustified-request for placing restrictions on millions of decent citizens who own, use, purchase and sell firearms without striking first at the criminal.

There is but one way to end our growing national disgrace of the criminal use of firearms-and that is to strike hard at the criminal.

This committee has before it my bill, H.R. 6137, which would do just that. My bill sets a mandatory 10-year federal prison sentence for use or possession of a firearms during commission of major crimes of violence on first offense and a 25-year mandatory sentence for any subsequent offense.

The core of this problem is the criminal-particularly the repeat offender, who must be stopped. If necessary, he must be isloated from society. And frankly, I deem it necessary.

The Attorney General cited to this Subcommittee a few days ago the National Crime Commission's statement that "all but 10 of the 278 law enforcement officers murdered during the period of 1960-65 were killed by firearms. . .'

But neither he, nor the Crime Commission, told you the full story on the murderers of these valiant law officers. Permit me to cite from page 37, F.B.I. Uniform Crime Report of 1965:

"When an examination is made of the prior criminal histories of those involved, it is found that 76 percent had been arrested on some criminal charge prior to the time they became participants in the police murders and, of oven more significance, over one-half of this group had been previously arrested for assauitivetype crimes such as rape, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with intent to kill, etc. In fact, the records disclose nine individuals had been charged on some prior occasion with an offense of murder. Seven of these had been paroled on the murder charge, one was an escapee having fled confinement while serving, time for murder, and one was an escapee who fied while awaiting trail for murder. Sixty-eight percent of the 362 persons who were responsible are known to have had prior convictions on criminal charges and more than two-thirds of this group had received leniency in the form of probation or parole on at least one of these convictions. More than one of every four of the murders was on parole or probation when he killed a police officer..."

With all due respect, I say to the Crime Commission and the Justice Department do not point the finger of blame for this shocking situation at 20 million. decent citizens who bought hunting licenses last year. Do not point the finger, of blame at the other 30 million who legally own guns to protect their homes and businesses and their loved ones from the scum that lax courts and lenient prosecutors turn loose to prey on us.

I find it unbelievable that in this same report-filled with inadequate facts and distorted logic-recommendation is made for rigid control on sale, registration and possession of firearms for law-abiding citizens. And at the same time, it is recommended that all mandatory prison sentences and long maximum prison terms be abolished, and sentencing be left to the discretion of the courts. I say it is time the people removed from the courts the discretion in sentencing that has led to such terrible abuse of the rights of the innocent.

A few days ago, I told my colleagues:

"If we need prosecutors with courage and fierce determination to protect society by removing the hardened criminal from our midst-let us find them.

If we need judges with more concern for the victim than the criminal, and guts enough to mete out stiff punishment for vicious crimes-let us find them.

If we need more jails and prisons to house these parasites who illegally use firearms to rob, rape, assault and murder-let us build them.

And if we need legislation providing severe penalties to enable the prosecutors and the courts to protect society from the illegal gun user by isolating him for a long, mandatory period-then let us enact legislation along the lines of my bill, H.R. 6137."

I recommend that the Committee adopt the existing language in the National Firearms Act and the Federal Firearms Act, strengthening these Acts if necessary, by adopting moderate provisions to restrict mail order sale of guns to juveniles, narcotic offenders and mental incompetents and the sale of heavy military weapons and destructive devices.

I further recommend this Committee hold in abeyance all legislation to further restrict sale or purchase of firearms by law-abiding citizens, and instead express the will of Congress that full and vigorous enforcement of this law be made by appropriate departments and agencies and a thorough review and report be made to Congress annually, and the F.B.I. be requested to undertake a massive detailed study on purchase, possession and use of firearms by the criminal, reporting the results to Congress.

I did not know the late New York City Judge Alfred J. Talley. But I cannot conclude without citing to you a quotation of his made in 1924, often used by our own great J. Edgar Hoover:

"The demand of the hour in America is for jurors with conscience, judges with courage, and prisons which are neither country clubs nor health resorts. It is not the criminals, actual or potential, that need a neuropathic hospital. It is the people who slobber over them in an effort to find excuses for their crime." And our own F.B.I. Director said recently:

"The rights of law-abiding citizens deserve as much consideration as the rights of convicted criminals and when it becomes a question of deciding between lenient treatment of repeating offenders and the safety of the public-fair play alone demands protection of the public."

It is my hope that my comments here have been helpful, and I thank the Chairman and my colleagues for the opportunity to be heard on this vital issue.

THE CRIMINAL-VERSUS THE HUNTER

A Statistical Study of Legal Versus Criminal Firearm Use

Little, if any, detailed information on criminal use of firearms is available to assist Congress in enacting effective firearms control legislation. Particularly inadequate is information on how and where criminals obtain firearms, prosecution for violations of existing federal firearms statutes by felons, and detailed analysis of the criminal use of firearms. The F.B.I. Uniform Crime Report of 1965 does not give this specific information. I obtained from the F.B.I. the percentage of cases for each State in which firearms were used in three major crimes of violence, and prepared the following analysis. The first figure in each category are crimes in which firearms were used, and the figure in parentheses are the total crimes within that category.

I find it particularly enlightening to know that firearms are used in less than one-third of all crimes of violence, and that this Congress is being asked to enact restrictions on 20 million law-abiding licensed hunters in an effort to curb the illegal use of firearms by 114,479 criminals, many of whom are repeat offenders.