[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.