Speech #1050007629

Mr. President. I rise - today to introduce with Senators KEN_ NEDY and KOHL the "DurbinKennedy t Empire State Building CounterTert rorism Act of 1997." 3 This legislation Is spurred by the rek cent tragedy at the Empire State _ Building where a man in this country on a tourist visa shot and killed Chris Burmeister. a young Danish tourist. wounded six and then turned the gun on himself. But this bill Is about much more than that one tragedy. It Is an effort to address a real problem and to pass a sensible measure to deal with it. The shooting at the Empire State Building has sadly served to reveal a glaring gap f in our laws--a gap that any wouldbe f terrorist could walk through. The fact Is that any foreign national who is coming Into the United States I on a tourist visa will probably pass through several airport security checks - to determine whether or not he Is car- rying a firearm. But as we have learned - in the tragedy at the Empire State - Building. that foreign tourist can slip through our Nations laws and can probably buy a gun once here In the United States more easily than you or I could. r2865 The motivation for the killing In New York Is not clearly terrorist in nature. But I do not want to wait until a terrorist exploits these loopholes in order to act. Let us close the gap now. Let me briefly explain the problem. Currently. more than 20 million pec.)le a year come into the United States on nonimmigrant visas. Nearly 1 million of them came in via Chicago last year. And by the way. that number does not include people from Mexico and Canada. There are more than 50 types of nonimmigrant visas. including tourist visas. work visas. student visas. and diplomatic visas. These visas are issued to people who do not Intend to reside permanently in the United States and they are issued without any kind of criminal background check of the applicant. Under the Brady law. anyone who wants to buy a gun in this country has to undergo a criminal background check. In the last 28 months. this requirement has stopped more than 186.000 illegal gun purchases. Seventy percent of those denied were felons. But what the Empire State Building shooting reveals is a gap in this law. Someone who just came to the United States on a tourist visa clearly does not have a criminal record in this country. Yet he or she may have such a record in their country of origin. The Brady bill cannot catch them since we do not search criminal records in foreign countries.