In Case You Missed It: Congresswoman Candice Miller Endorses Mayor Rudy Giuliani

“Today I’m announcing my endorsement for Rudy Giuliani for President of the United States. I really have taken a lot of time and really thought about who I would be supporting and working for during this presidential campaign because of course I think the issues and the challenges that are facing our nation so very, very intense, so incredibly intense. I have spoken with all the major candidates, I have carefully evaluated their positions, I’ve looked very carefully at how their stance on various issues, maybe areas where I agree with them or in some cases of course where there might be some divisions that might be a bit different from mine. But most importantly I have tried to evaluate their readiness. And I use that phrase, I really believe that evaluate their readiness to handle the awesome responsibilities of the presidency. And I say that because, you know, really no one knows what exact challenges or events the next president will face, but we all know that something, perhaps beyond our ability almost to comprehend, could happen and we know that just because of the way that the world is now. So I think at the heart of it for me, I’ve been trying to decide which of the candidates in my mind possess the strengths to make the right decision and to do so under the worst possible scenario, and principally based on that criteria I’ve come to the very certain conclusion that the individual best prepared to lead America is Rudy Giuliani.”

“And as some of you may know I come from Macomb County Michigan, which is really where the term the Reagan Democrats had its genesis in the political nomenclature. And our County, Macomb County, is considered to be the bellwether county in a battleground state. And I think Rudy Giuliani will do extremely well in my county of Macomb, I think he’ll do well in my state, and across the entire nation. And the reasons that I think his chances are so good is because of the qualities that he brings to the table. First of all, as I’ve mentioned, we live in a very dangerous world with those who want to strike against America and kill Americans to fulfill their own intentions and this means we have to have someone in the presidency who will be ever vigilant in his efforts to protect America, and I trust Rudy Giuliani to be ever vigilant and I trust his judgment again to respond to circumstances to keep our nation secure, because he has been tested under the most extreme circumstances and the way that he handled that test earned him the respect, quite frankly not only of Americans but of people around the world.”

“Also, if you really look at his record as Mayor of New York, when he was Mayor of New York, you don’t even have to take the events of 9/11 into consideration as a way to measure his performance. If you just look at his time there and how he governed, you see that he really governed as a conservative. For example, on the issue of crime, let me use this example, the Mayor is a very strong supporter of the second amendment as I am, and one of the things that those of us who believe in the second amendment, we always say, is look we don’t need any more new gun laws, what we need to do is just enforce the laws that are currently on the books that exist. And the Mayor did so in New York City, and guess what? Crime dropped dramatically, as well as homicides, because he took the guns away from criminals. And this happened in a city where crime was apparently just accepted as a fact of life to be endured. And yet during his administration as has often been noted, the murders dropped from about 2000 annually to 650 annually and there was an overall drop in the crime rate by about 57 percent. As well as when he was a Mayor he inherited an economy that was very much in decline with over 1 million people dependent on welfare, he cut taxes, he reduced the size of government, he reformed welfare. Again, Guess what? It worked. So you had welfare rolls declining and jobs growing, where he had a deficit that turned into a surplus.”

“I use these examples of how he governed as a conservative because I believe that, as he does, that public safety is a fundamental civil right, and I agree with him. I think the Republican Party will agree with him, and I think the Republican Party will nominate him, and I do think the American people will agree with him as well, and support him for president. And he has demonstrated over and over again leadership. In fact, he really is the only candidate I think, because I’ve listened to all the candidates and evaluated them all, who’s really out there saying, ‘This is what I actually did, judge me on my record, you can use my record as a measurement.’ I mean he’s not out there saying, ‘Elect me and this is what I will do.’”

“And before we go to questions let me just say as well, that it is my observation that the Mayor isn’t asking anyone to change his or her beliefs, he respects heartfelt positions, and he is working to find common ground. And, yet, his positions on issues, on fiscal issues and social issues, have remained the same. He is not trying to pander to any one segment of the population or pandering to some particular voting block. In other words, I would say look, he doesn’t just want to just be the President of the Republican Party, he wants to be the President of the United States. I tell you, being in Washington in this era of very unfortunate hyper-partisanship and gridlock, I think that is the approach to the issues and ultimately to governance. It’s exactly what America needs and it’s what the American people will be demanding in the next President. Rudy Giuliani is a leader, he’s a true leader, and I’m just very, very proud to be on his team by heading up his effort in the great state of Michigan.”

Perhaps they'd be so kind as to put this into context...

Citizens Crime Comission

Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani
1095 Avenue of the Americas
March 6, 1997, 8:15 a.m.

Check against delivery

Thank you. Good morning. It is a pleasure to join all of you here today for the Citizens Crime Commission's breakfast.

A couple of weeks ago, all New Yorkers and people throughout the world were appalled by the senseless and horrifying act of violence that occurred at the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building is such an important landmark... such an important symbol of America that, like so many other places in New York City, when a tragedy happens there, it receives a great deal of attention in the media.

However, with this latest incident, we saw something rather remarkable happen, because perceptions about New York City have finally changed.

Thanks to our historic reductions in serious crime, we have been able to get the message out that New York City is just about the safest large city in America.

People throughout the world no longer see New York City as a national symbol of the plague of crime and violence. Now people see New York as a safe, decent place, and as a leader in fighting crime.

Because of this transformation of perception, when this latest tragedy occurred, instead of having to defend New York City, we were able to focus national attention on the real problem, which is gun control.

And even as we grieve for those who lost their lives, and our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their loved ones, we may be able to find some sort of meaning in this tragedy by using it as a catalyst to revive national gun control efforts.

The man who committed this despicable act of hatred and violence came to the United States on December 24th. First, he arrived in New York and then traveled to Melbourne, Florida, where he checked into a cheap hotel.

Using the hotel address, he was able to obtain a photo ID card, and that was all he needed to buy a gun, a .380 Beretta, capable of firing 14 rounds in 4 or 5 seconds.

Because in Florida, although they have relatively strict regulations to obtain a gun license, gun licenses are only necessary for carrying concealed weapons. A license is not required to buy a gun. To buy a gun all that is required is a photo ID.

And that is when buying from a retailer. In private transactions at gun shows, or purchasing a gun from a private individual, there is nothing required whatsoever.

Ironically, if Mr. Hassan Kamal had wanted to buy a car, or even drive a car legally, he would not have been able to, because in Florida obtaining a drivers license is much more difficult than buying a gun.

In fact, getting a drivers license is more difficult than buying a gun in most places. A drivers license requires several forms of official identification proving residency.

It requires a written test and a road test, and a thorough background investigation is done to determine if the applicant has a history of driving recklessly, or unlawfully.

And these drivers license requirements are fairly uniform from state to state, which demonstrates that from region to region, a vast majority of Americans accept that driving an automobile is potentially very dangerous and requires sensible regulations.

However, guns kill many more people than automobiles do, even though there are many more cars than guns, and cars are used much more often than guns.

In New York City, in 1996 there were 414 fatalities caused by traffic accidents, but there were 987 fatalities involving firearms.

I think one of the reasons that the procedures for obtaining a drivers license and buying and operating a car have become uniform and sensible is that insurance is required for automobiles.

And the insurance industry has standardized what is necessary to get insurance. Cars must be registered and trackable.

Cars are required to undergo periodic safety inspections in many states. Driving records are computerized and traceable, and drivers licenses must be periodically renewed.

Perhaps, we should require insurance for handguns. If liability insurance were required to purchase and own a handgun, you better believe that the insurance industry would promulgate a pretty rigorous licensing and purchasing process to control the risk.

As a private citizen, as a prosecutor, as a Mayoral candidate and as Mayor, I have advocated for more regulated and more uniform gun licensing regulations, similar to those for a drivers license.

But as it stands now, although some localities like New York City have relatively stringent rules for purchasing a gun, many other states require next to nothing, and without a uniform policy, we all lose.

In fact, a recently released study indicates that of 2,225 guns confiscated in New York City, more than 92 percent of the guns were originally purchased out of state--and more than 60 percent of them came from 5 states, Virginia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

When looking at the FBI total index crimes list, which shows number of crimes on a per capita basis for cities with population more than 100,000, it is not a coincidence that 4 (t.b.v.) of the top 10 are in Florida, and 6 (t.b.v.) are in the South, where gun control laws are very lax.

New York City on the contrary, where the requirements for purchasing a gun are more rigorous, ranks 144th on that list.

Yesterday, President Clinton outlined his proposals for more stringent, federal gun licensing requirements.

His proposals include:

prohibiting non-citizens from buying guns;
requiring proof of residency, including photo id. and something like a utility bill in the buyers name... similar to what is required for a drivers license;
making cop killer, or Teflon coated, armor piercing bullets illegal;
and requiring child safety locks on the weapons of all Federal Officials to prevent these guns from ever winding up in the hands of children.

I applaud the President's proposals, and I will support them any way I can.

I only hope that he is right, and that Congress is finally ready to recognize that the vast majority of Americans want more gun control. It makes sense. It is time. And we can no longer let special interests dominate this vitally important issue.

We in New York and other places are working very hard to control crime and especially to reduce criminal incidents involving guns.

Here in New York, we have seen more than a 50 percent decrease in shootings since 1993, but to complete the job we've started, we need the help of other states, and of the Federal Government to promulgate more rigorous gun purchasing requirements nation wide.

Then we won't have 90 percent of our city's guns being brought in from other localities to commit heinous crimes like the tragedy on the Empire State Building.

I know many people argue that keeping and bearing arms is federally guaranteed right as stated in the Second Amendment of the Constitution.

But even in the Second Amendment, it refers to firearms in the context of a well regulated militia, and well regulated is what we're trying to accomplish.

Just as unimpeded interstate travel is Constitutionally guaranteed, but we reserve the right to regulate driving automobiles, so too must we sensibly regulate gun purchases to preserve the safety of all Americans.

Thank you.

Yup... He's a big support of the Second Amendment. And Jenna Jameson is a big supporter of abstinence.

Or perhaps there's a context for this...

ARCHIVES OF THE MAYOR'S WEEKLY COLUMN
Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani

New York City Sues Gun Industry
By Mayor Rudy Giuliani

On June 20th, I was pleased to announce that the City of New York filed a lawsuit against two dozen major gun manufacturers and distributors. This is an industry which profits from the suffering of innocent people. The lawsuit is intended to end the free pass that the gun industry has enjoyed for a very long time, which has resulted in too many avoidable deaths. The suit alleges a number of illegal practices on the part of the gun manufacturers, including:

Deliberately manufacturing many more firearms than can be bought for legitimate purposes such as hunting and law enforcement, and knowingly targeting these excess guns to criminals, youths and other persons unqualified to buy firearms;
Deliberately undermining New York City's gun control laws by flooding other markets which have less stringent gun laws with firearms that the manufacturers know are destined to be illegally resold in New York City;
Ignoring the illegal practices of gun distributors, many of whom openly engage in the above practices;
Refusing to manufacture safer guns, with features such as trigger locks and "personalization" measures that allow only authorized persons to fire the weapon.

More than 30,000 Americans each year - including 4,200 children - die because of gun violence. In addition, the city has found evidence of advertisements by gun manufacturers that claim their guns don't show fingerprints. This feature serves no purpose unless the user is intending to use the weapon for illegal purposes.

It is our hope that this suit will result in substantial financial awards to the City for the many ways in which illegal practices and illegal guns harm New Yorkers; including the $17 million dollars each year that are spent by the City's Health and Hospitals Corporation treating gun-shot wounds.

Over the past six years, New York City has reduced crime and murder more than any City in the nation. Our success has been built, in large part, on the tireless efforts of the Police Department to remove guns from our streets. But 95% of the guns that our police seize come from outside the City of New York. Their job of keeping New York safe is made considerably more difficult because of less restrictive guns laws in other parts of the nation and because of the illegal and immoral practices of the gun industry. This lawsuit is an aggressive step towards restoring accountability to an industry that profits from the suffering of others.

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Citizens Crime Comission

Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani 1095 Avenue of the Americas March 6, 1997, 8:15 a.m.

Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani
1095 Avenue of the Americas
March 6, 1997, 8:15 a.m.