# Statement by President Roosevelt on signing the crime bills, 18 May 1934 (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-122180225-fdr-crime-bill-statement-1934/

The President's statement on signing the May 1934 federal crime bills, which he calls "a renewed challenge on the part of the Federal government to interstate crime." The marked-up draft includes the line "Federal men are constantly facing machine-gun fire in the pursuit of gangsters."

The item is Speech File 702 in the Master Speech Files of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Local ID msf00722. The PDF is a marked-up draft with handwritten edits, so this page quotes only words legible in the typed text. Roosevelt calls the bills "a renewed challenge on the part of the Federal government to interstate crime." The draft includes the line "Federal men are constantly facing machine-gun fire in the pursuit of gangsters."

These May 1934 laws came before the National Firearms Act, which was approved on 26 June 1934. It is filed here as the President's own statement of the federal posture in the weeks before the act.

**Object:** Typed draft statement with handwritten edits  
**Maker:** Franklin D. Roosevelt  
**Date:** 18 May 1934  
**Provenance:** Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Master Speech Files  
**Appears in:** NARA catalog, NAID 122180225

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/122180225