[url]http://apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2001/05/10/bush_guns.html[/url]
Bush to Promote Anti-Gun Plans
May 10, 2001
By SONYA ROSS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush will travel to Pennsylvania next week to highlight "a new national initiative" on gun violence, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday, although providing no specifics.
In the fiscal 2002 budget Bush sent to Congress, he requested $49.78 million to provide grants to states to establish programs for increasing arrests and prosecution of gun offenders.
While opposing gun control, Bush has advocated "vigorously prosecute" of gun crimes and said it should be a priority to keep juveniles from obtaining guns.
During his presidential campaign, Bush singled out a program in Richmond, Va., called Project Exile, and he launched in Texas, called Project ChildSafe, as ways to deter gun violence.
Project Exile focuses on punishing criminals with stiff mandatory sentences without parole when convicted of a crime involving a gun.
Since its implementation in 1997, gun-related crimes in Richmond have dropped by 65 percent and violent crimes by 35 percent, although skeptics have pointed out that crime rates in other Virginia cities without the program dropped by similar rates.
The National Rifle Association strongly supports the program.
Last year, the House passed a "Project Exile Act" that would have provided grants to states that hand down sentences of at least five years in prison without parole to people who use or carry firearms during a violent crime or serious drug trafficking. It never passed the Senate.
Justice Department spokesman Reagan Dunn said Project Exile is a good model but the administration's gun initiative is much broader than that. He wouldn't provide details.
Justice's budget request also includes $9 million for a federal-state partnership to prosecute juvenile gun offenders and crack down on illegal gun traffickers selling to children. It creates 94 new positions in U.S. attorneys' offices for a partnership to identify and prosecute juvenile offenders and those who supply guns to them.
The Bush budget proposal also contains $75 million in federal matching funds for ChildSafe, which provides law enforcement agencies with kits containing trigger locks and lessons on safe gun storage.
Another $20 million would provide grants to support state-level prosecutions of gun offenders and establish "safe school" task forces involving local police and schools.
Hmmmm, this doesn't sound too good.
Justice Department spokesman Reagan Dunn said Project Exile is a good model but [b]the administration's gun initiative is much broader than that. He wouldn't provide details.[/b]