Word: commitments
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...faith. His study of 4,798 homes across the nation convinced him that guns prevented more crimes than they furthered. "Since the majority of people who own handguns are responsible, law-abiding citizens," says Kleck, "you end up regulating those people instead of the small percentage of people who commit most crimes...
...George Bush's performance was scathing and dismissive. "Bush confuses being tough with being smart," Clinton told me during the 1992 campaign, "especially on drugs. You can't get serious about crime without getting serious about drugs. Bush thinks locking up addicts instead of treating them before they commit crimes -- or failing to treat them once they're in prison, which is basically the case now -- is clever politics. That may be, but it certainly isn't sound policy, and the consequences of his cravenness could ruin...
...borders have caused cocaine and heroin prices to decline dramatically -- and heroin use, which seemed to be dying out, is rising precipitously. Casual drug use is down, but at least 2 million Americans remain hard-core consumers. At least 60% of violent crime is associated with drug use. Addicts commit 15 times as many robberies and 20 times as many burglaries as criminals not on drugs. Approximately 70% of the nation's 1.4 million prisoners have drug problems, but only 1% of federal inmates and about 15% of state prisoners receive adequate treatment. Yet well- structured, prison-based antidrug programs...
Outside, the situation is deplorable. At present there are only about 12,000 long-term, residential drug-treatment beds available in the U.S. The irony is obvious: without an increase in drug treatment outside the criminal-justice system, most addicts will have to commit a crime before being helped. The cost of community-based residential treatment ($18,000 annually a participant) is still less than the cost of housing a prisoner, but "it's going to take clear presidential leadership for people to realize how cost-effective that can be," says Schumer. The signs are not encouraging. Widespread drug treatment...
...guns are dangerous consumer products," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala in a speech last Thursday before the American Trauma Society. She points to studies that have found that having a gun in the home makes it five times as likely that someone in the household will commit suicide, and three times as likely that someone will be murdered. Salt Lake City Mayor DeeDee Corradini recalls a young mother she met during Salt Lake City's gun amnesty and buyback program: "A mother with four young children in tow came. She said, 'This gun has been used once...