[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           BASIC STEPS FOR IMPROVING OUR CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, 3 weeks ago, America learned a terrible 
lesson: Our culture is producing teenagers who are capable of 
unspeakable violence. We, as a country, must come together to address 
this complex problem. It is one that requires several answers.
  We have students who attend schools without guidance counselors. We 
have children exploring violent websites alone at night. We have 
handguns sold and resold without basic safety features or background 
checks. Our children grow up in a world that is unlike the one that I 
grew up in.
  We need to take basic steps to improve our cultural environment. 
Families must embrace their children's questions, ideas, hopes and 
dreams. Adolescence is a difficult time. Our schools must be safe 
without becoming prisons. Classrooms should be small enough for strong 
discipline and individual attention. Schools must have guidance 
counselors and mental health services that presently are shamefully 
lacking.
  Handguns should come with safety locks. Firearms should not be sold 
to children under 21. Background checks at gun shows, period. The 
entertainment industry must clean itself up and stop marketing violence 
to our children.
  Let us take these steps together and invest in a stronger America.

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