fifty states to insure? Is it not our first responsibility as government to do all we can to enhance the public's safety? In the name of God, we must love our fellow man enough to insist, if this deadly instrument must be tolerated in our society, that we take as much precaution as possible to protect the safety of our public! This can be done most effectively by licensing registration, a waiting period before purchase and by requiring each of the fifty states to administer such provisions through their departments of public safety.

Georgia, the state I serve in the House of Representatives, and South Carolina, the state of my birth, have the least requirements for gun purchases. Consequently, they also, annually, have the highest violent crime rates and lead the way in supplying the rest of this nation with handguns used in violent crimes. It was reported on a CBS Special recently that 38% of the handguns confiscated in violent crimes in New York Ctiy, during a six month period in 1973, came from South Carolina and Georgia. In no other two states can handguns be purchased so easily, quickly and in such great abundance. So, sadly, Georgia, a state I love dearly, contributed dramatically to the violent crime rates of New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and the entire country because of our legislature's failure to act responsibly by enacting a meaningful handgun regulation law.

Many of our states such as New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Maryland, have acted responsibly and have gun laws. But it is difficult for these states to be effective when anyone can come down to Georgia and South Carolina and buy as many pistols, take them back to New York or Chicago, or Detroit, or elsewhere, and sell them for three or four times the $30 paid for each.

In a recent Harris survey it was revealed that 72% of the American people favor the enactment of effective gun control laws. In my own state of Georgia the demand for legislation runs extremely high. But, why no laws? Why are our elected officials reluctant to tackle this issue? Why?

Why in the face of what seems so logical and reasonable do we fail to get each state to regulate this deadly weapon; at least as it does cars, marriages, pharmacists, architects, dogs, etc.? The answer: because, of the well disguised and influential money interests. The work of which is carried out, in a masterful way, by the tentacles and branches of the massive and powerful gun lobby; acting in Washington and at every level of legislative and executive state and local governments. A lobby whose power is second only to oil lobby.

This gun lobby's special interest must be exposed to the American people for what it is; a very tragic but effective, very deadly but powerful, group. of combined industrial giants in the ammunitions and arms industries along with sportsmen clubs, hunting clubs, wholesale and retail gun and ammunition dealers and NRA members throughout the country who realize that if meaningful laws are enacted to stop making the handgun so easily accessible and available, sales will go down!

It is not important to these businessmen who thrive on the manufacture, distribution and sale of these death merchants, that; if the handgun was not in the house, the wife might be alive today, that; the neighbor who got in an argument with his friends would be alive, that; if the handgun was not so readily available to a violent crime, 70% of which, is enabled by the presence or possession of a handgun, might go down, No! These developments are of litte significance if it also means, correspondingly, that handgun and ammunition sales would decrease also!

We as responsible public officials must get the American people to understand that behind it all is big money. Most major anti-gun control groups are sponsored and encouraged, directly or indirectly, by these special interests. This is the worst example of how special interests is placed before the public interests. For there is no greater public interest or public need than life. In the name of human decency, we must control this menace to life!

As a public official from a deep south state, a region of the country known historically for the easiest access to guns and the highest violent crime rates, I plead to this Committee and to the nation: Please let us focus our greatest attention to this business of handguns. How much longer must we wait hefore our legislatures act? How many more American lives must be lost? Will we continue to allow public policy on handguns to be determined by the powerful money-hungry special interests of the ammunitions and arms industry, the NRA, the gun lobby? America-we must control this violent killer. It is about to control us!

Homicide is the most easily solved crime, ask any police officer, because the perpetrator is still there, he is crying, he is upset, and people, if you go and you talk to people who kill somebody, you know, they really cannot comprehend what they have done and it is regrettable.

We can lock people away. People want strong punitive methods. If a man commits something that is wrong, punish him, but, Mr. Chairman, where are we going to put them? Already we have got five times overcrowded Georgia prisons.

Now, I think if we are in the position of trying to make a better society, a more nonviolent society, we have got to look at those things that enable violence to take place.

There is no way that we can rap it out, but certainly, Mr. Chairman, if we put forth the effort to put forth a meaningful, strengthened law, the major significant thing to do is to bring back some of that confidence in government that the people have lost.

People have lost confidence in their legislative bodies because of the overt, strong control of special interest on our legislators. They respond to money. They respond to lobbying. The people don't have the paid lobbyist and I like to think that we are their lobbyists, so that there is no secret that those who stand to make money off the sale of bullets and guns are diametrically opposed to my bill, the bill that hopefully will come out of Congress, because, yes, we will make sure, to the best of our possibilities, that a guy who has committed a crime cannot legally get a gun. Yes, we will make sure that a 14-year-old kid will not be able to go down to a pawnshop and trade in a $30 radio for a cheap pistol, because it will be against the law, it will not be left up to the pawnshop guy, the gun dealer, to determine qualifications as it is now. People will say yes we know it is against the law but it is up to the pawnshop guy. He is the one that says, "look, just fill out these forms." "All right, have you killed anybody before". "No, okay, fine", and so forth. He makes those decisions. The public needs to know that. When we get these cries about laws are already on the books, there is only one Georgia law dealing with the sale and possession of handguns in this State and that is you have got to be 21 years of age. That's it.

Now, I think we need to cut all this extra stuff and try to do something for the benefit of our people. Seven hundred and five Georgians lost their lives last year in homicides, and Mr. Chairman, 85 percent of them were killed by perfectly law abiding citizens. Perfectly law abiding citizens, who bought the guns for the purpose of perhaps protecting themselves, but wound up using it on another. Now I think that that point needs to be brought clear that the gun that is purchased, that handgun is not a defensive weapon, it is false security, and that the public is better off without it, because he has to live with it 365 days out of the year waiting on that one e moment in which he can get the jump on somebody in with his gun out.

pe of experience has to be shared with our people. We rination. We are in the business. This is why they have to respond to their interests.

at the program-an interesting thing haplorida speaking on this subject, 2 weeks-2

Now what happens when we put preventive measures. What happens when you have to get on an airplane and travel? You have to go through a screening device, and you in fact have to meet certain minimum qualifications before you can get on that plane and as a result of that, the confidence in the public that flying has improved and certainly highjacking has gone down.

Now certainly you are a good guy and you are not going to highjack a plane but you have got to go through that process just like the potential bad guy, so the central question here, Mr. Chairman, is (A) the gun is made to kill humans, that is the sole purpose; it is the chief enabler of crime, 80 percent of all violent crimes is enabled by the handgun. There are many causes, but what is the chief enabler? What causes this to happen? The handgun, and are we to sit idly by and say everybody get them.

In Georgia, all it requires is a driver's license. Are we in the Georgia Legislature being responsible to maintain the public safety by saying for this one instrument whose purpose it is to inflict destruction on humans, are we serving the public interest to say all you need is a driver's license, all you have to be is 21; you can get out of a mental, insane asylum here in Georgia, and in 2 minutes go anywhere and get a pistol, legally. In Georgia, we put a man in jail, fine him $5,000, for showing to consenting adults people making love; but if that same man were to sell a pistol to a 10-year-old, nothing happens to him.

Are we being responsible? I think the public needs to examine and I think the public needs to realize who is speaking for the people and who is speaking for the special financial interests. That needs to be exposed, because in the final analysis all we can do is pass a law. The public has to be the one to accept it. The public has to be the one to realize, to be educated, to stop and to think. Sure the American people want the right to bear arms, and I don't think we are talking about-I know we are not talking about taking away anybody's right to buy or to possess arms; but, in a sane and logical society, with the right to do anything comes the responsibility of regulation. That is what we are about. Put forth minimum qualifications.

How are we going to say it's a felony for a man to carry a gun without a license when we don't require the license?

How are we going to say that it is wrong for a man to have a criminal background and have a weapon, when we don't give the police an opportunity to check the man's background out?

What I have offered before the Georgia House of Representatives is simple, a licensing requirement so that we can do our job as legislators to make sure the man meets minimum qualifications, a waiting period, to aid our law enforcement people to check out a person's background and also to provide a cooling off period, for many of the people to go down on the spur of the moment, get a pistol and come back to harm somebody; and a massive education program conducted by each state department of public safety, to educate our people, to let them know that it is not the crook that is going to kill you, your next door neighbor will do it quicker. Your girl friend or your wife's boyfriend. People you know very well.

Homicide is the most easily solved crime, ask any police officer, because the perpetrator is still there, he is crying, he is upset, and people, if you go and you talk to people who kill somebody, you know, they really cannot comprehend what they have done and it is regrettable.

We can lock people away. People want strong punitive methods. If a man commits something that is wrong, punish him, but, Mr. Chairman, where are we going to put them? Already we have got five times overcrowded Georgia prisons.

Now, I think if we are in the position of trying to make a better society, a more nonviolent society, we have got to look at those things that enable violence to take place.

There is no way that we can rap it out, but certainly, Mr. Chairman, if we put forth the effort to put forth a meaningful, strengthened law, the major significant thing to do is to bring back some of that confidence in government that the people have lost.

People have lost confidence in their legislative bodies because of the overt, strong control of special interest on our legislators. They respond to money. They respond to lobbying. The people don't have the paid lobbyist and I like to think that we are their lobbyists, so that there is no secret that those who stand to make money off the sale of bullets and guns are diametrically opposed to my bill, the bill that hopefully will come out of Congress, because, yes, we will make sure, to the best of our possibilities, that a guy who has committed a crime cannot legally get a gun. Yes, we will make sure that a 14-year-old kid will not be able to go down to a pawnshop and trade in a $30 radio for a cheap pistol, because it will be against the law, it will not be left up to the pawnshop guy, the gun dealer, to determine qualifications as it is now. People will say yes we know it is against the law but it is up to the pawnshop guy. He is the one that says, "look, just fill out these forms." "All right, have you killed anybody before". "No, okay, fine", and so forth. He makes those decisions. The public needs to know that. When we get these cries about laws are already on the books, there is only one Georgia law dealing with the sale and possession of handguns in this State and that is you have got to be 21 years of age. That's it.

Now, I think we need to cut all this extra stuff and try to do something for the benefit of our people. Seven hundred and five Georgians lost their lives last year in homicides, and Mr. Chairman, 85 percent of them were killed by perfectly law abiding citizens. Perfectly law abiding citizens, who bought the guns for the purpose of perhaps protecting themselves, but wound up using it on another. Now I think that that point needs to be brought clear that the gun that is purchased, that handgun is not a defensive weapon, it is false security, and that the public is better off without it, because he has to live with it 365 days out of the year waiting on that one moment, one moment in which he can get the jump on somebody that is coming in with his gun out.

Now that type of experience has to be shared with our people. We have this information. We are in the business. This is why they have elected us to office, is to respond to their interests.

Now when we look at the program-an interesting thing happened, I was down in Florida speaking on this subject, 2 weeks-2

days before I got there, there was a survey being conducted, postal cards, by good friends of the NRA and on that postcard was several questions and one question read, "If a burglar, a murderer, a rapist, a mugger broke into your house and threatened the lives of your family or your loved ones, do you think the Government ought to take away your right to defend yourself".

You know, I think that for any intelligent person that has just heard what I have said they should figure out that it is an insult to their intelligence what that type of survey is doing, and I am sure it is not commonplace in Florida or wherever we are trying to do this, but I think the American people in the next year, this coming year, if this movement and momentum develops, are going to be, going to have an avalanche of this type of approach.

We have got to have the responsibility to let the American people know that certainly the NRA, who have a direct financial vested interest, the gun manufacturers of this country who are making record business, and the munitions industry, and I think we also have to let them know about these little satellite groups, like they have the gun lobby here in the Georgia General Assembly, the Wildlife Federation, the preservation and conservation of wildlife, why are they opposed to handgun regulations? Why are they opposed to people meeting minimum qualifications to possess this? The public needs to know that a percentage of the excise tax in this State goes directly to their pocketbook, so naturally if we do something to cut the ease of accessibility and availability of handguns, it hurts them in their pocketbook, and I am not going to stand idly by and see our people being constantly brainwashed in this approach, and I think this brings about another thing, I think we are going to have to-the public is going to have to demand their political people to have some guts, to stand up, to be courageous and not talk about what is, but try to talk about what ought to be.

What kind of society do we want 5 years from now? Where are we headed? At the rate that we are arming each other, ourselves, and for us as public officials to acknowledge and to say that people are arming themselves because they have no faith in government, and to be in government, and not realize it's because of our inactions, the proliferation of handguns is what is scaring people.

You walk downtown in the streets of Atlanta or around in the suburbs of any place, people are not afraid of people, they are afraid of people with guns, and they are not concerned about whether or not that man is going to be put in the electric chair after they shoot him, kill the guy, he is not concened about that; what he is concerned about is, does this man have something on him that he can harm me and with 200 million guns at the rate we are going, the catastrophy, it is an epidemic and for those of us who have the public trust, the confidence, and the mandates of making public policy on guns, for us to sit idly by and to try to placate some financial vested interests for-while 700 Georgians are being killed, 14,000 to 15,000 Americans each year, and to say that we are going to placate the financial vested interests of gun lobbyists, that is ridiculous.