Excerpts 10

<P>			     *PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

<P>"We can't just sit back and watch the world go by, while we do nothing."
Adam Fordyce, Froid High School, Froid, Montana

<P>*Violence 

<P>*Guns are one aspect of the violence problem:

<P>"A major factor of violence is the availability of guns. They are rapidly
becoming cheaper and easier to buy. Many of the guns currently bought in 
the United States are imported from China and the ex-Soviet empire. 
These guns are cheaper & more abundant than their American counterparts." 
Michael Hutchison, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

<P>*To get rid of violence, simply get rid of guns. Simple or quixotic?

<P>"When nine-year old Christopher Harris became a victim of a shooting, 
the city of St. Louis also took action. The city collected 8,500 firearms
which were melted down into a statue of young Christopher." 
Rebekah L. Kochar, Conrad Weiser High School,Robesonia, Pennsylvania

<P>"In San Francisco, a man went into a high-rise building and killed 
several people, including a wife and mother of a baby girl. The woman's 
husband, who now has to raise his daughter without a mother, went to 
Washington, D.C. to speak out against gun violence."  
Carlene Fast, Pioneer High School, San Jose, California

<P>*Collecting guns, constructing statues and making speeches may make the 
performers feel better, but these things aren't likely to curtail crime.
Carlene has another idea:

<P>"Guns could be traded in for vouchers that could be used toward college 
expenses. For instance, every gun that is turned in could earn a $100 
voucher toward college books or tuition. This not only might remove guns 
from our young people, but gives them something that can be applied 
toward their future and a more productive, responsible life."
Carlene Fast, Pioneer High, San Jose, California

<P>Carlene added a new twist to gun collection. It is a change from the one 
idea we heard over and over--legislate an end to guns:

<P>"I feel that if we had more laws that prohibited the ownership of guns 
the fewer problems we would be faced with." 
Jay Salen, Marion High, Marion, South Dakota

<P>"A bill to prohibit guns to minors is in the South Dakota House."  
Jory Wipf, James Valley Christian School, Huron, South Dakota

<P>"I feel that the only way to take care of this problem is to ban the 
future manufacturing, sale, and possession of all types of firearms.  
All existing guns should be collected and destroyed."  
Chris Olsen, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin

<P>"If it were up to me, the government would destroy all the guns in the 
country. We whould go back to the days of fighting with spears, swords, 
bow and arrows, and rocks. Back to the Medieval ages, when the test of a 
real man came from his ability to swing his sword, not in his agility to 
pull a puny trigger. Anyone can pull some stupid trigger. Where is the 
skill in that?  Let's get rid of all the guns, and then we'll see who 
the true hero's are."Joe Parker, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin

<P>*Joe (above) has his own agenda. He would get rid of guns, not to curb 
violence, but to encourage skill in fighting. Apparently Joe's "true 
hero"is not someone who promotes peace, but rather someone who kills 
skillfully.

<P>"There should be no guns on the street, period. Even the police should 
be disarmed by the law." 
Andy Chen, New Providence High School, New Providence, New Jersey

<P>*Perhaps Andy intends to transform American police into gun-free English 
bobbies? In the excerpt that follows, Casey has a more moderate proposal:

<P>"I think that fully automatic guns should be off the street. These kinds 
of weapons belong in the military and they should be left there. People 
should be allowed to have hunting rifles... I would [rule] that you would
have to have a special license to own a pistol. However, people should 
have the right to own a pistol so they can protect themselves and their 
families. Remember that it is the person who discharges the firearm that 
is to be responsible for the outcome of his or her actions."  
Casey Glade, Hoonah High School, Hoonah, Alaska

<P>*For every student that advocated gun control another pointed out that 
gun control laws disarm victims and leave the guns in the hands of 
criminals:

<P>"Gun control attacks a serious problem from the wrong angle. Today 60 
million Americans own 200 million firearms, including 60 million handguns.
Yet, less than four tenths of one percent of those handguns will be used 
legally. This will punish the law-abiding citizen, rather than the 
criminal who uses firearms in the commission of a crime. Evidence 
indicates that criminals have no need to purchase handguns legally, 
and overwhelmingly do not. This nation needs a tougher anti-crime bill, 
rather than an anti-gun bill. It is time in the U.S. to pass legislation 
which provides severe penalties for those criminals using firearms."
Larry Scott Graddy, Valley Springs High School, Valley Springs, Arkansas

<P>"Take a piece of paper out, draw a map of the United States and color in 
the areas where guns are the most highly restricted. Next take a trans-
parent sheet and color in the areas with the highest crime rates and lay 
that over the first map and you will see the areas match almost exactly.
This should prove to any rational person that gun control laws do not 
work... Given there are more good guys than bad guys, I think if all the 
good guys had guns, the criminals would soon learn that theirs is a 
dangerous occupation." Joe Nicklas, Prairie School, New Raymer, Colorado  

<P>"The long history of waiting-period-plans points up the failure of those 
systems in other criminal justice areas as well. Waiting periods, permit-
to-purchase laws and police background checks have been instituted around
the country for most of the century. There has been ample time to study 
the effectiveness of waiting periods in deterring violent crime. They 
appear to be useless in curbing crime. One research study concluded that 
gun control laws have no significant effect on rate of violence beyond 
what can be attributed to background social conditions. Such laws do not 
effectively limit access to guns by the violence-prone nor does access-
ibility to guns appear to have an effect on the rates of violent crimes 
and accidents. But the Brady bill rests on a largely unsupported assump-
tion that the combination of a waiting period and police background 
checks will somehow reduce handgun crime. There is no real proof of 
this...Assistant Attorney General Eleanor Acheson was forced to admit 
that the administration has no statistical proof that Brady would reduce 
handgun homicides or handgun crime."  
Larry Scott Graddy, Valley Springs High School, Valley Springs, Arkansas

<P>Self Control not Gun Control:  

<P>"[Regarding the Brady Law] This law is one that attempts to gain control 
of the weapons used in the United States. I believe that the need for 
such a bill exemplifies the loss of control in our country rather than 
a harness on control." Melanie Homan, Demopolis High, Demopolis, Alabama

<P>"No matter what we do we'll never rid our country of guns. Licensing, 
waiting periods, background checks, and high taxes may help, but most 
guns are obtained illegally. An American who is educated and has good 
values would by far be the best kind of gun control. We need to create 
a society that can handle it's problems in other ways besides blowing 
someone away." Stephanie Flint, Kensington High, Kensington, Kansas
"The gun is simply a tool and not lethal until it is held in someone's 
hand. The gun itself is not at fault; it is not dangerous until picked 
up." Trang Le, Central Islip High School, Central Islip, New York

<P>*Starting with Trang Le's excerpt above, "It's not the guns; it's the 
people" was the theme we heard the most; not surprising since the essay 
topic was Responsibility:

<P>"Everyone claims that it is the guns that are causing the problem and 
not the people. I think this is a prime example of our irresponsibility 
in the United States. We always blame somebody or something other than 
ourselves for our problems. There is not a gun on the earth that can 
think so there isn't a gun that can decide to go and kill someone."  
Jeremy Lattimore, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota

<P>"Criminals use guns to take the things they want, and they don't care 
if they have to kill anyone or not. [Some] people [would] rather shoot 
you than look at you. Guns are not our problem. Yes, they do aggravate 
the situation, but our major problem are the gun owners."  
Scott Fowler, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee

<P>"Guns don't kill people--people do". If you look at it in one light this 
is certainly true, but this phrase [acknowledges citizens'] responsibility
to [handle] guns [conscientiously]. If you look at the phrase [in] another 
light, you might realize if those people who do kill with guns suddenly 
don't have those guns, then what would happenŠ It takes very little 
effort to aim and pull a trigger. That can all happen in a split second 
and the result can never be reversed. I feel no one needs to have a gun 
mainly because I feel no good can come from them."  
Dylan Knowles, Antietam High School, Reading, Pennsylvania

<P>*Dylan obviously did some soul searching and so did Todd. In the excerpt 
below Todd deviates from the more general platitude to make an insightful, 
and helpful, point:

<P>"About half of all the families in American own at least one gun. The 
steps that the government is taking [toward gun control] are good, and 
children must be taught about guns, but [even more importantly] children 
must be brought up knowing their lives are worth something. A majority 
of kids today have been raised by one parent and have been taught no 
basic rules. I think the problem with teens having the attitude 
'I don't care if I die,' all starts with their development as a 
youngster. ...Self-esteem is very important."  
Todd Gordon, Pioneer High School, San Jose, California

<P>*Maybe if we teach people how to handle guns responsibly:

<P>"We have a lot of hunters in our area, therefore we have a lot of guns. 
But the difference between us and bigger cities is that we make sure 
that our children know the safety techniques of guns. Granted there will 
be hunting accidents, but they are not intentional." 
Jay Salen, Marion High School, Marion, South Dakota

<P>"In rural areas where using guns is a way of life, most children know 
how to safely handle a gun before the age of five. You do not see many 
incidents of children shooting themselves or others in the<!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="http://us.js2.yimg.com/us.js.yimg.com/lib/smb/js/hosting/cp/js_source/whv2_001.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1269223536" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>