[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 62 (Monday, May 3, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4512-S4514]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REACHING OUT TO PREVENT TRAGEDY

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise today to make a few comments 
regarding the tragic shootings in Littleton, CO.
  Thirteen days after this tragedy occurred, our Nation is still really 
in shock. The hearts of my own family and all Ohio families, and, of 
course, all Americans families, go out to the families who have lost 
loved ones. There is nothing that you can say that

[[Page S4513]]

can take the pain away. Anyone who has lost a child understands that. 
The loss these families have suffered cannot be repaired. But it is 
important that these families know that there are people--many of us 
far away from Colorado--whose thoughts and prayers are with them at 
this terrible time.
  What went wrong? Could the shootings have been prevented? What should 
we do to prevent other tragedies such as this from occurring in the 
future?
  These are all very difficult questions--difficult issues for a public 
official to talk about, because when you do, people will think that you 
are claiming to have ``the answer.'' Let me say flat out that I don't 
claim to have ``the answer.''
  What happened in Littleton will always to some extent remain a 
mystery, and why it happened. Evil is a mystery that exists deep in the 
human heart. But that brutal fact of human existence that we can't come 
up with ``the answer'' does not excuse us from our moral 
responsibilities--our responsibilities, as legislators, as parents, as 
citizens. In fact, it increases our responsibilities. If we don't have 
``the answer,'' we have to work harder to find answers--things we can 
do to make a difference child by child by child. Some of the things we 
have to do may not be glamorous, but they will all be helpful. They 
will save lives.
  Fred Hiatt pointed out in a powerful Washington Post article recently 
that 13 children a day--13 children a day--are killed by guns in this 
country--in effect, the Littleton massacre every day. Statistically, of 
these 13 children who die every day, 8 are murdered every day; 4 
tragically commit suicide every day, and 1 dies accidentally every day.
  Mr. President, maybe we can't prevent a massacre such as the one in 
Colorado, but we can work on initiatives that would save some of the 13 
children a day who are dying in gun-related deaths.
  What I would like to do this afternoon is talk briefly about a few of 
those initiatives that I believe would save lives. We don't know whose 
lives they would save, but I have had, I think, enough experience in 
this area to say that they would save some lives, and, therefore, we 
should do this.
  No. 1, I have a bill, which is now included in the juvenile justice 
bill, that we will be considering in just a few days.
  This provision provides incentives to local governments to coordinate 
the services they offer to the kids who are the most at risk in their 
county, or their area. I am referring, for example, to the children who 
have been duly diagnosed as having both maybe a psychiatric disorder 
and a substance abuse problem, or some other combination of problems. 
For too long, kids have been falling between the cracks of the court 
system, the children's services system, the mental health system, and 
the substance abuse system. Other kids are misdiagnosed or don't get 
access to all the services that they need. My proposal would promote an 
approach that has been successful in Hamilton County, OH--in the 
Cincinnati area--an approach that gives our most problematic kids the 
multiple services they need, under the overall coordination of the 
juvenile court system. These kids should not fall victim of 
bureaucratic turf conflicts. All of them are our kids.

  No. 2, parents, teachers and local service agencies need to explore 
ways to reach out and provide appropriate services to at-risk youth 
before they end up--before they end up--in the juvenile court system. 
That is the essence of prevention--to find ways to keep children from 
ever coming in contact with a juvenile court. That is why a renewed 
investment in mental health diagnosis and treatment is so vitally 
important with our children.
  We have to as a country, as a people, make a more serious investment 
in diagnosing and treating these kids with psychological problems. 
Throughout the whole system, everybody--teachers, probation officers, 
everyone--will tell you that we do not now have enough resources.
  I have talked to so many juvenile court judges who look at these kids 
they have in front of them, and who know they have mental health 
problems, and yet who do not have the resources, and try to reach these 
kids and turn them around, to cure them before it becomes too late. We 
need to get these kids early.
  A third suggestion of things that are, I think, practical and that we 
could very easily do is keep closer track of kids who have been 
convicted of violent crimes. The tracking provisions I, along with 
Senator Sessions, have written into the juvenile crime bill we will be 
considering in just a matter of a few days will help do that.
  When a young person commits a crime, and then, let us say, moves to 
another State and commits another crime, local law enforcement 
officials and judges many times do not have the available information. 
They do not know this person has committed a violent crime, and the 
reason they don't is because we don't have a good nationwide tracking 
system for juveniles, and we should. We should do it with juveniles who 
have already demonstrated that they will commit and can commit and may 
in the future commit a violent crime.
  When it comes to making key decisions about juvenile offenders, 
judges and probation officers need to make judgments based on the best 
possible information. That is what my provision would give them.
  No. 4, we need to get serious about background checks on gun 
purchases. Everybody talks about the Brady bill. But very few people 
realize that the Brady background checks are only as effective as the 
information that goes into them. That is why I have been fighting for 
almost 15 years for improved law enforcement information systems. That 
means good criminal records, knowing who has done what.
  Last year, I wrote a bill on crime technology. Senators Gregg and 
Hollings were very helpful in the appropriations process in getting the 
money for that.
  The fact is that 60 percent of the States have criminal records that 
are less than 80 percent complete. In other words, our criminal record 
system isn't as good as it should be. The Brady bill will only work as 
well as the underlying criminal justice system it is based on. We need 
to fix it and do a better job.
  No. 5, we need to get serious about confronting our cultural 
problems. I thank our colleagues, Senators McCain and Lieberman. I 
think they were right when they encouraged the President to call a 
summit meeting of the leaders in the media community--TV, radio, 
movies, video games and the recording industry--to talk about the 
responsibility in shaping the messages that we are sending kids.
  We can't force them not to air trash that is harmful to people. The 
first amendment doesn't allow that. I hope the President's summit is a 
success. The fact is, the President does have, as Theodore Roosevelt 
said, a bully pulpit, and he needs to use it on this issue. We need to 
be upfront about the costs of excessive violence in the media--the 
price paid not just in lives lost in tragic events such as the shooting 
in Littleton, but also in the day-to-day harm that occurs in the 
emotional lives of children.
  Many have blamed the toxic culture for the shootings in Littleton. I 
personally have no doubt that if the culture were not as coarsened as 
it is today, those kids very well may not have committed this crime. We 
will never be able to prove it or know for sure. It is too simplistic 
to say the culture caused the shootings; but to deny a connection would 
also be simplistic, and, I believe, naive. The culture that thrives on 
cruelty and hatred did not create these killers, but it offered them an 
outlet, a particular way of self-expression, that ended up devastating 
a whole community.

  We need to work on creating and promoting the alternative to a 
culture based on death and violence, a culture based, rather, on the 
value of life, on the principle that every human life is unique, 
priceless, and worth defending.
  We can't ban movie and video games we don't like. But there are 
things that we can do. I think there are positive steps the media could 
take to improve our culture and protect children to some extent.
  The most important measure of all is parental involvement. Parents 
are the most important teachers for their kids. They should be their 
most important influence.
  We need to reach out to our children. We need to listen to them. We 
need to pay attention. It is not a cliche to say

[[Page S4514]]

that tragic events are a cry for help. It is the simple truth.
  In conclusion, there is no bill we can pass to make any of this 
happen. For this we have to look inside ourselves. In the meantime, 
those who are in public life need to do everything they can to make 
this task just a little bit easier. I mentioned five ideas that I have. 
I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate and 
concerned people at the local community level in Ohio and across our 
Nation to make sure we are doing all that we can.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________