madam chairman , i spent 22 years as a judge in texas trying criminal cases , felonies ; 22 , 000 felony cases came through my court .  they dealt with everything from major theft to capital murder cases .  and a lot of those cases were gang cases .  and the people in this country who believe and think that gangs are not a problem are sorely mistaken .  it was the action operative of the gangs in the houston area to use juveniles to commit serious crimes , violent crimes , because those very juveniles and these gang leaders knew that juveniles would be treated differently , as they were .  these gangs would almost laugh at the criminal justice system because the juveniles would not face the same type of punishment as adults .  this portion of the bill that treats juveniles in some cases the same as adults is a good idea , because , in our country , victims continue to be discriminated against based on the age of offenders .  those days need to end , especially with gang members .  this is an important issue .  i , too , like the previous speakers are concerned about whether this is a states ' rights issue or not .  but gangs cross state lines .  no longer are they just a local terrorist community .  and they are terrorists , madam chairman .  we , at this time , are engaged in a war against international terrorists .  we need to be concerned about the street terrorists who roam our neighborhoods and commit violent crimes in the name of some type of gang .  a specific powerful enemy to the united states is the ms-13 gang .  we need to be concerned about them because they are a terrorist group .  they are gang members .  so the first duty of government is to protect its citizens .  we do that abroad .  we need to do it against those street terrorists that live among us .  i support this bill .  