    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [May 23, 1998]
    [Pages 833-834]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    May 23, 1998

        Good morning. This weekend marks the time when we honor the brave
    men and women who gave their lives to serve our country and we thank the
    hundreds of thousands of Americans in uniform who protect and defend us
    every day all around the world. But this Memorial Day weekend, Americans
    are also praying for the people who lost their lives and for those who
    were wounded when a 15-year-old boy with
    semiautomatic weapons opened fire in Springfield, Oregon, this Thursday.
        Like all Americans, I am deeply shocked and saddened by this
    tragedy, and my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their
    families. Like all Americans, I am struggling to make sense of the
    senseless and to understand what could drive a teenager to commit such a
    terrible act. And like all Americans, I am profoundly troubled by the
    startling similarity of this crime to the other tragic incidents that
    have stunned America in less than a year's time: in Paducah, Kentucky;
    Jonesboro, Arkansas; Pearl, Mississippi; and Edinboro, Pennsylvania.
        We must face up to the fact that these are more than isolated
    incidents. They are symptoms of a changing culture that desensitizes our
    children to violence; where most teenagers have seen hundreds or even
    thousands of murders on television, in movies, and in video games before
    they graduate from high school; where too many young people seem unable
    or unwilling to take responsibility for their actions; and where all too
    often, everyday conflicts are resolved not with words but with weapons,
    which, even when illegal to possess by children, are all too easy to
    get.
        We cannot afford to ignore these conditions. Whether it's gang
    members taking their deadly

    [[Page 834]]

    quarrels into our schools or inexplicable eruptions of violence in
    otherwise peaceful communities, when our children's safety is at stake
    we must take action, and each of us must do our part.
        For more than 5 years, we have worked hard here in our
    administration to give parents and communities the tools they need to
    protect our children and to make our schools safe, from tighter security
    to more police to better prevention. To promote discipline and maintain
    order, we are encouraging and have worked hard to spread curfews, school
    uniforms, tough truancy policies. We instituted a zero tolerance for
    guns in schools policy. It is now the law in all our 50 States. And
    we'll work hard to make it a reality in all our communities to keep
    deadly weapons out of the hands of our children and out of our schools.
    And we will continue to demand responsibility from our young people with
    strong punishments when they break the law.
        This year Congress has an opportunity to protect children in our
    schools and on our streets by passing my juvenile crime bill, which will
    ban violent juveniles from buying guns for life and take other important
    steps. We shouldn't let this chance pass us by.
        But protecting our children and preventing youth violence is not a
    job that Government can or should do alone. We must all do more, as
    parents, as teachers, as community leaders, to teach our children the
    unblinking distinction between right and wrong, to teach them to turn
    away from violence, to shield them from violent images that warp their
    perceptions of the consequences of violence.
        We must all do more to show our children, by the power of our own
    example, how to resolve conflicts peacefully. And we must all do more to
    recognize and look for the early warning signals that deeply troubled
    young people send before they explode into violence. Surely, more of
    them can be saved and more tragedies avoided if we work at it in an
    organized way with sensitivity and firm discipline.
        This weekend we grieve with the families of Springfield, Oregon. We
    may never understand the dark forces that drive young people to commit
    such terrible crimes, but we must honor the memories of the victims by
    doing everything we possibly can to prevent such tragedies from
    occurring in the future and to build a stronger, safer future for all of
    our children.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 3:30 p.m. on May 22 in the Roosevelt
    Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 23. In his
    remarks, the President referred to Kipland P. Kinkel, who was charged
    with the May 21 shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, OR, in
    which 2 students were killed and 22 wounded.