    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [May 15, 1999]
    [Pages 779-780]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    May 15, 1999

        Good morning. In the past few weeks, ever since that terrible day in
    Littleton, people all across America have searched their souls and
    searched for solutions to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening
    again and to reduce the level of violence to which our children are
    exposed.
        Last Monday at our White House strategy session on children and
    violence, representatives of every sector of society agreed on one
    fundamental fact: Making progress requires taking responsibility by all
    of us. That begins at home. Parents have a duty to guide children as
    they grow and to stay involved in their lives as they grow older and
    more independent.
        Educators have a responsibility to provide safe learning
    environments, to teach children how to handle conflicts without
    violence, and how to treat all young people, no matter how different,
    with respect. They also need to teach them how to get counseling or
    mental health services if they're needed.
        Communities have a responsibility to make sure that there is a
    village, as the First Lady said, that supports all its children,
    especially those who don't get their needs met at home. And the
    community needs to do more to get our kids involved in working with each
    other and serving the community, not being isolated from it.
        And here in Washington, we have a responsibility. We've got a
    responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children.
    There's a broad national consensus on that point. At the White House
    conference, the gun manufacturers agreed that we need commonsense
    approaches. Everybody agrees except the U.S. Senate. For example,
    everyone knows we need a real law to close the deadly gun show loophole,
    through which thousands, indeed, tens of thousands of guns are sold each
    year without background checks--even though they'd have to have a
    background check to be sold in a gun store.

    [[Page 780]]

        Now, the Senate declined to pass that bill. Even worse, the Senate's
    substitute bill is riddled with new loopholes permitting convicted
    felons to get guns at pawn shops, no questions asked, and making it
    harder, not easier, for law enforcement to trace guns used in crimes. If
    the Senate wants to fix the problem, it should fix the problem, not make
    it worse. The American people deserve better. They know law-abiding
    citizens don't need loopholes in our gun laws, only criminals do. I sure
    hope that in the coming weeks the Senate will step up to its
    responsibility and do the right thing by our children.
        I've always said the entertainment industry must do its part, too.
    In 1993, shortly after I became President, I traveled to Hollywood and
    spoke there to members of the community about their responsibility. I
    said then, ``You have the capacity to do good, to help change the way we
    behave, the way we think of ourselves. Examine what together you might
    do to help us rebuild the frayed bonds of community, to give children
    nonviolent ways to resolve their frustrations.''
        After 6 years of work, the entertainment industry is helping parents
    to limit children's exposure to violence, working with the
    administration on a voluntary rating system for television and the V-
    chip to enforce it, and on parental screening for the Internet and
    ratings for all Internet games sales. But there is still too much
    violence on our Nation's screens, large and small. Too many creators and
    purveyors of violence say there is nothing they can do about it. And
    there are still too many vulnerable children who are steeped in this
    culture of violence, becoming increasingly desensitized to it and to its
    consequences and, therefore, as studies show, hundreds of them more
    liable to commit violence themselves.
        By the age of 18, the typical American will see 40,000 dramatized
    murders. There are those who say they can or should do nothing about
    this. But I believe they're wrong. Every one of us has a role to play in
    giving our kids a safe future. And those with greater influence have
    greater responsibility. We should see movies and music, TV programs,
    video games, and advertising for them made by people who made them as if
    their own children were watching. Members of the entertainment community
    can make a big difference.
        Today I want to issue three specific challenges to them. First, the
    whole industry should stop showing guns in any ads or previews children
    might see. Second, I challenge theater and video store owners all across
    our country to enforce more strictly the rating systems on the movies
    they show, rent, and sell. You should check ID's, not turn the other way
    as a child walks unchaperoned into an R-rated movie. Third, I challenge
    the movie industry to reevaluate its entire ratings systems, especially
    the PG rating, to determine whether it is allowing too much gratuitous
    violence in movies approved for viewing by children.
        Our administration is fighting to do all we can to protect children.
    The entertainment industry should do everything it can, too. Across
    America people are coming together, saying, ``Yes, together we can
    change this culture of violence; together we can give our children a
    safer future and a culture of values we'll be proud to pass on to future
    generations.'' We can do it together.
        Thank you.

    Note: The address was recorded at 3:26 p.m. on May 14 in the library at
    the Rainier Club in Seattle, WA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 15.
    The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary
    on May 14 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.