In a stern rebuke of House Republicans, President Clinton on Saturday denounced passage of a juvenile-justice bill that he said "walks away from the problem."
"The bill is weak on guns," Clinton declared in his weekly radio address.The House voted Thursday to give states $1.5 billion to fight juvenile crime, but only if they require that all young people accused of violent crimes in state courts be tried as adults.
Though the bill passed 286-132, with many Democratic votes, Democratic Party leaders argued that only 12 states currently qualify for the block grants.
Democrats also failed to add a provision to the bill that would have required safety locks for guns, an idea the National Rifle Association opposed. In his radio address, Clinton said, "Not a single hunter would lose a gun because of child safety locks."
Clinton said his juvenile crime initiative would ban gun sales to any adult who committed a violent crime as a youth, create new anti-gang prosecutors and keep schools open later and on weekends so kids have an alternative to street corners.
The president also supports programs like one in Boston that has police and probation officers making nightly visits to homes of troublesome teens. The House bill "walks away from the crime-prevention initiatives that can save a teenager from a life of crime," Clinton said in remarks taped aboard Air Force One before he left Costa Rica for the Caribbean.
"I challenge Congress to pass a real juvenile-justice bill, one that's tough on gangs and tough on guns and is serious about the kind of prevention efforts we know will work," he said. "To me, a juvenile-justice bill that doesn't limit children's access to guns is a bill that walks away from the problem."
When the bill passed, Clinton's aides stopped short of threatening a veto. Instead, they hope the president's use of the bully pulpit will force concessions from Republicans.
In the Republican radio address Saturday, Sen. Bill Frist said improving education and reinvigorating the fight against drugs are two ways to help America's children in the "struggle for their future."
But the Tennessee lawmaker said mending the "fabric of the American family" is where the real solutions lie. And he contended that the Family Friendly Workplace Act scheduled for a Senate vote next week can start the repair process.