Date: 1999-05-24
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from Guam. Finally. I just like to say. Mr. Speaker. that I had an opportunity to meet with a group of students at Pinole Valley High School in my district and had subsequent conversations with five of those students. Brian Davenport. Marcus Maxwell. Jamian Johnson. Kari Washington and Brett Parsons about Littleton. and those students and the students in the larger group had spent a great deal of time watching the news. listening to the news on the Internet. over the networks and elsewhere. acquiring information about what took place at Littleton. They clearly understood that this was about them. it was about their peers. it was about their generation. children of their same age. and they were terribly troubled about it. and they understood that this is not a problem that can be answered with one solution. that it is. in fact. very complex. I was also quite pleasantly surprised. the extent to which the students understood they clearly had a very strong role to play in the solution to these outbreaks of rage and the violence and the killing that have taken place in these schools. that they understood that maybe they should be nicer to some of their fellow students. that there were students who they knew were somewhat loners or did not feel a part of the student body. that they should extend themselves. they should go over and talk to them. that maybe they should stop making fun of students or characterizing students because of the way they dressed. whether they had the latest clothes or they did not have the latest clothes. or the latest sneakers. or the wrong color clothes or what have you. that they had to think about not doing that. that students should not be characterized and categorized whether or not they participate in a religious organization after school or the debate club or they were on the track team or the football team. All of these cliques that are natural. very. very natural during the adolescent years in schools. they understood that that was unfair to those students. They had formed. they had many celebrations of their differences at Pinole High School over the years. The day I was there. they decided to celebrate their unity. to celebrate their sameness. to celebrate the fact that they were part of one student body drawn from many different communities. It was a very exciting thing to see happen in response to Littleton. So while we are focused on guns this evening and while we are focused on the need of the Republican leadership to expedite the consideration of these common sense gun safety measures. we also appreciate the complexity and the magnitude of this problem. And let us not forget. let us not forget as we keep talking about children and schools and violence and killings. that 25 million teenagers are enrolled in 20.000 schools nationwide. Eight of those youths in six schools perpetrated the school killings of the last 8 months. Twentyfive million children came and went to school every day without being subjected to this danger or perpetrating this danger. We are talking about a handful of young children. Some people have suggested. and I think the minority whip said it this week in Salt Lake City: The problem is not guns. the problem is. we are raising children to kill children. No. we are not raising children to kill children. Twentyfive million teenagers went to school yesterday. the day before. and the day before Littleton and the day before all of these tragedies. and afterwards. and did not engage in the killing of their classmates or their friends. But a very small handful. because of the easy access and proximity and the irresponsible ownership of these guns and possession of these guns in their homes and the easy ability to purchase them through a loophole in the law at gun shows. that handful of students was able to perpetrate an incredible amount of violence and incredible amount of killing on their school friends and on their communities. So this is not to suggest that these are children of a generation of a culture of violence and killing because it is not true. Those kinds of generalizations will cause us to miss the problem. will cause us to miss the complexity of it. . But what we do know in this particular case was these young people had relatively easy access to these guns. and what we do know is that we have that part. as my colleagues know. that part of the solution coming together in the passage of these measures that have passed the Senate. So I think we ought to keep and we ought to understand our children. and we should not. we should not paint them with the very broad brush of a relatively and. well. less than two handfuls of children that have perpetrated this kind of violence over the last 18 months. If this was the culture of violence in this young generation. as Michael Males. who is at the School for Social Ecology at the University of California. Irvine. points out. if this was a culture of violence. if we had raised children to kill children. then these killings would not be thousands of miles apart and months apart. This is what all children would be doing. But they are not doing it. Like all of the children before them. they are going to school to get an education. to socialize and become part of their community. to grow up and to mature and decide what they are going to do with the rest of their lives. And their parents did not raise them to kill children. But some parents unfortunately have been very irresponsible about leaving loaded guns and leaving firearms around. easily accessible to their children. apparently have not had the kind of communication or have not imposed upon their children the kind of discipline I grew up with about a gun. I hunted. my father hunted. my children hunt. We have very. very strict rules about when one can touch a gun and when they cannot touch a gun and what to do with a gun in the home and what to do with the gun in the field. Now some parents apparently have not been able to convey that or not willing to convey that or do not understand the kind of risk. We have got to deal with the questions of that kind of parental irresponsibility and with placing some responsibility and liability on those who fail to be the proper custodians of their children and of these firearms. Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker. the tragedy at Columbine was heartbreaking for all Americans. but it was particularly difficult for the people in my home state of Oregon. where we endured a similar tragedy just one year ago at Thurston High School in Springfield. At Thurston High. two young students were killed. and America reacted with sadness and sympathy. At Columbine High. as we all know. thirteen students were killed by the two gunmen. America reacted with profound grief and a renewed sense of urgency. Ladies and Gentlemen. thirteen children die every day in Americathe result of handgun violence. Columbine happens every single day. It is not nearly as dramatic. there are no CNN cameras. the nation does not stop and hold its breath. and watch... But. every day in America. 13 children die unnecessary deaths from guns. This is a childrens health epidemicand it is high time this Congress start paying attention to it. and take some steps in the right direction. Now is the right time to begin the search for answers. Clearly. this is not an easy task. There are many approaches we can take to reduce youth violence: We can make it easier for parents to spend time with their children. We can reduce class size so teachers can identify troubled children. and get them the help they need. We can better teach our young people the value of human life. We can devote more resources to school counselors and mental health providers. And we can simply open up the channels of communication between adults and teenagers � kWhat Ive learned from listening to Oregon students in their schools. is that perhaps the most important thing we can do to make schools safer. is to create an atmosphere where it is more acceptable for students to talk to adults when they see danger signs. These are all important steps... Each will be helpful. but none alone or all together will be effective enough to curb this health epidemic without a commitment from this Congress to make guns less accessible to young people. Conflicts and emotions that get the better of people can sometimes be sorted out with words. sometimes they get sorted out with fists. or with knives... But the only tool of anger that can mow down thirteen students in a school libraryis a gun. Simply passing laws will not address the root causes of this tragedy. but there are steps we can take to keep guns out of the hands of violent juveniles. That is why I urge my colleagues to support reasonable gun safety measures being introduced by Democrats: First. lets close the "gun show loophole." which allows criminals to trade weapons anonymously. By instituting background checks for those seeking to anonymously purchase firearms at gun shows. we can make guns less accessible to criminals. and to violent youths. Second. lets raise the minimum age for handgun purchases from 18 to 21. Third. lets make sure that guns are childproofed at least as well as a bottle of aspirinby requiring gunmakers to equip all guns with child safety locks. And finally. lets show the American people that were serious about stopping the illegal transfer of guns. I hope my colleagues will join