STATEMENT OF ANDRÉS SOTO, POLICY DIRECTOR PACIFIC
CENTER FOR VIOLENCE PREVENTION

The Pacific Center for Violence Prevention is the policy center for a statewide violence prevention initiative in California. In this capacity, we have worked in coalition with a variety of other organizations in California and the nation to develop and implement strategies to reduce violence that are based on sound public health theory and strategy. We have been particularly involved in the movement for responsible gun laws in California and have helped to put California on the cutting edge of new gun legislation in the United States.

At the same time, we have also had to challenge the efforts of the gun lobby to move their agenda and put forth disinformation. Project Exile and its derivatives are one part of that agenda. Because of this, the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention has produced the first ever review of Project Exile and how it actually operates in the field.

Because of the Bush-Ashcroft administration's close ties to the gun lobby, Project Exile has now become the cornerstone of "Project Safe Neighborhoods," this administration's gun violence-reduction strategy. The administration has authorized $550 million, primarily to hire a new corps of U.S. Attorneys and local prosecutors.

Unfortunately, two bills, McCain-Lieberman on the Senate side, and Castle-McCarthy on the House side, have been introduced which purport to address the gun show loophole, but contain $150 million for Project Exile. This was done as a cynical attempt to craft a so-called middle ground in gun legislation by kowtowing to the gun lobby while trying to address the gun show loophole.

The Pacific Center's study on Project Exile reveals some very disturbing realities about Exile's implementation and impact. Project Exile does not do anything to target those who dump weapons into our communities. Exile only targets ex-felons for simple possession, thus driving up conviction numbers. Exile's implementation offends principles of Equal Protection by disproportionately targeting non-white males, especially African-Americans. Exile does not have any ameliorating influence on gun violence. Exile offends our constitutional separation of powers by federalizing street crime and damages both the federal and local justice systems by clogging federal courts with individual small-time criminal cases and creating a false impression that state courts are incapable of handling serious crime. Exile may increase recidivism and intergenerational crime by exiling convicts far away from their families. Exile has never been independently evaluated for its claims or deficiencies from a scientific or public health perspective.

Sound public policy should be based on sound research. Exile is not. It is a racist distraction promoted by the gun lobby. Any group that claims to support better regulation of firearms cannot in good conscience support Project Exile, or any legislation that promotes it, unless they are willing to sacrifice another generation of young men of color and their communities to unfair treatment by the justice system in order for a short-term political gain.

Because Project Exile is bad policy and bad politics, I want to personally thank Mr. Conyers for courageously introducing his "Gun Show Background Check Act of 2002". Mr. Conyers' bill is the House companion bill to the Senator Reed's Gun Show Loophole bill which is supported by over 300 organization from across the political and disciplinary spectrum, and from the grassroots to the Beltway. There can no longer be any excuse to support the Exile inclusive and Brady Law undermining Castle-McCarthy bill on the House side, nor McCain-Lieberman on the Senate side. It is time for us to unite and take on our common opponents who would waste $550 million for Project Exile in the euphemistically titled, "Safe Neighborhoods" program, which does not work and subverts our federal judicial system.

The full report is available from www.tf.org