Student Killings

On the day of the Columbine High School massacre--in fact the very hour two high school seniors went on a premeditated shooting rampage killing 12 students, one teacher and themselves- -Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini, New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial and I were meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno in her office discussing school violence. It was a follow up meeting to the dialogue Conference President Corradini has been taking to the nation since she convened The National Summit on School Violence last September in Salt Lake City.

Mayors, Police Chiefs, Educators, Arts, Park and Recreation Experts, Health Experts, and representatives from the News Media and Entertainment came to Salt Lake when Mayor Corradini she called because they were determined to respond to the spree of school shootings that had occurred in schools in our nation. It was an unparalled group who met in Salt Lake. Attorney General Reno sat with us for hours after her comments to help us draft our National Action Plan. Lynn Cutler was sent by President Clinton from his White House staff; as a former teacher and elected county executive her contribution to our effort was most helpful.

Mayors worked in Salt Lake using their experiences with the leaders gathered there to come up with basic, simple, easy to use approaches in preventing more killings in our schools. Our unique National Action Plan is only six pages long. We are now in our second printing and thousands have been requested since the Littleton massacre.

Following the Colorado shooting rampage, Conference President Corradini has been all over the national television networks talking about our recommendations we adopted last September in Salt Lake.

As I sat glued to the television over the weekend, I relived the Conference of Mayors Violence Summit in Salt Lake because the issues being discussed after Littleton were the same issues we discussed in Salt Lake for the purpose of stopping another shooting spree and more student killing.

While the student killings continue, Washington has been involved in the Monica mess, impeaching the President and now the Kosovo War. While all this is going on, students in America continue to kill. It's beginning to look like the weather report. Oh, my goodness, another tornado. Now it's the student killing we are forced to accept.

I go to the Big 7 meeting, the leaders of the governors, counties, NLC, state legislators, etc., they talk of preemption, how the federal government is preempting us from letting America work. I return to my office and hear of how the state governments are preempting mayors and police chiefs throughout the nation from suing gun manufacturers or passing more local laws promoting gun safety. We are trying to stop the student killings because we know there will be more. We didn't start talking about American high school students killing innocent high school students until after Littleton. The mayors have been out there with leaders of The National Education Association, The American Federation of Teachers, and the Major Cities Police Chiefs talking about the student killings until we are blue in the face.

Morial/New Jersey Conference of Mayors Adopts USCM Plan

This past week I, along with New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, took our message to The New Jersey Conference of Mayors. The NJCM adopted unanimously the USCM National Action Plan on School Violence. Mayor Morial and I appeared on a three-state TV show on the subject. The pro-gun, lets do nothing about student killings crowd were there with us on the panel. Our theme, coming from our national recommendations, is to make guns safer and to prevent guns from getting into the hands of minority age youths and criminals. It's that simple.

The opponents in New Jersey could not accept the fact that guns are being sold at these gun shows out of the back of the car, off to the side in parking lots across the nation. I remember in 1995 former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson telling me about this. He had seen it in Louisville and this issue was there when we adopted the recent crime bill.

Children Can Buy Guns

In Littleton, the Tec-9 pistol was used to shoot the students. The manufacture of this assault-style semi-automatic pistol has been banned since 1994. According to press reports the two shotguns and pistol were bought recently from a Colorado gun dealer.

In Colorado and federal law, a child of minor age cannot own a handgun and it is illegal to give or sell one to someone under 18. One of the challenges is that it is legal for someone 18 or older to buy a handgun through a private sale reached through a classified advertisement or a gun show. While the 1968 Gun Control Act prohibits federally-licensed gun dealers from selling to anyone under 21 years of age, it is perfectly legal for those 18 to 20 years old to possess handguns and even to buy them from unlicenced sellers out of the back trunk of a car, at a gun show or from a neighbor, friend or uncle who is a private collector.

This is not a Colorado problem. It's important to know we have 50 states that are different and in a free and mobile society guns are everywhere. Surveys from Colorado do indicate almost half of households own handguns and there are gun shows in the state, as in other states, almost every weekend. Again, at gun shows sellers do not have to conduct background checks on buyers.

Clinton/Mayors - Keep Kids Away From Guns

At The White House this week, Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, Past President of USCM, joined President Clinton and First Lady Hillary where President Clinton announced his "comprehensive legislation to keep guns away from youth and criminals." President Bill Clinton's package is the most comprehensive gun legislation put forth by an American President in 30 years. The President of The United States and The President of The United States Conference of Mayors are united in trying to make guns safer and to keep guns away from children and violent criminals. It's that simple. President Clinton, thanks to Attorney General Reno and Lynn Cutler, has adopted many components of our Salt Lake City National Action Plan. Both of these women were in Salt Lake City with us. They brought the Action Plan back to The President and he is working to make our schools safer and to stop the student killing, to halt the abject horror and fear that is damaging the minds of good, innocent and precious children who get up and eat their cereal and wonder if they'll get killed in a beautiful school in an urban, suburban or rural area in America. God Bless America.

Morial-1990's Thousands USA Children Killed

New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial spoke eloquently at The New Jersey Conference of Mayors. To a luncheon packed with cameras and over 800 persons he reminded us that in 1995, the last year for which complete numbers are available, 5,285 children were killed in the USA from misdirected gun fire. He talked about the numbers killed in the Vietnam War. He challenged us on the numbers of dead children in the 1990s, a violent decade for our children where numbers in the '90s for our children dead at home will exceed the numbers of young soldiers in the '60s in Vietnam.

Gun Violence Is Expensive For You

On another point, we in the 1990s, judge everything on its cost - money. So if deaths of students, children and our babies doesn't bother you, maybe the cost of the deaths, what gun violence does to your personal economic cost would get your attention. Tolerated gun violence is not cheap. Here's some statistics from Michelle Singletary, The Washington Post, who writes the column "The Color of Money" in the business section: (1) The estimated cost of direct health care for firearms-related injuries in the USA in 1995 was $4 billion (2) Average per person cost of firearm fatalities is the highest of any injury-related death, at $373,000 per death (3) Price of pain and suffering and lost of quality of life attributable to firearm injuries in 1992 is $75 billion (4) Journal of Trauma reported in 1992 that 250 people hospitalized for firearm injury at a California hospital resulted in costs of $3.7 million, of which 80 per cent was public funds. Perhaps the most interesting statistic Ms. Singletary reported is that for each bullet sold in the USA, an injury price tag of almost $23 - including 60 cents for medical care to emergency services, $7.20 for lost work and $15.10 for lost life. These are a few personal costs to all of us as we continue to accept gun violence in our country.

Parents With Blinder On - Denial

Two additional points: President Clinton's proposals include making it a felony for parents to knowingly or recklessly allow children to use guns to commit crimes. Much continues to be said about the role of parents. Legal pundits debate on TV and law professors point out that the criminal law statutes make it difficult to remove the blurry lines in laws on parental responsibility. There seems to be a hue and cry for more parental responsibility. Our National School Violence Plan would require that parents and gun owners be held criminally liable for children who gain access to improperly stored guns. Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone reports that a sawed off shotgun and bomb making materials were found in plain sight of one of the boy-gunman rooms. People in the Denver area were wondering this week about parent responsibility. A Denver criminal defense lawyer, Jeffrey Springer, was quoted in The New York Times on the parents knowledge and actions. "How this could happen to me is to me outrageous and inexplicable. But is that a crime? Not in this state. Being an irresponsible parent who has blinders on is not a crime."

Let us hope that parents will be responsible , but in Salt Lake at our Summit, delegates questioned how long it will take for parents to be more responsible. Unfortunately, school children need counseling they are not in the 1990's getting at home. Police Chief Robert Olson of Minneapolis stood up in Salt Lake in September and recommended we call for 100,000 school counselors, Attorney General Reno applauded the recommendation and we are exploring ways to get more counselors in schools. Twenty years ago we had more counselors. Absentee parents, both parents working, drugs, crack, violence on TV, in the movies and in video games all warrant more counseling than ever before.

Webb Expresses Sorrow/Asks NRA Not To Come To Denver

Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb, on April 20, expressed profound sympathy for Littleton, Colorado and people of the Detroit Metro community. He lowered the flags in the center and county of Denver until further notice. He did one other thing too. In a nice way he asked the National Rifle Association to cancel their Annual Meeting now scheduled for Denver next week. He asked in his statement that the NRA do this out of respect for the pain and suffering felt by his people in the Denver-Metro community. They responded that they would not cancel but instead they would limit their meeting to one day. Reports indicate that the Denver Business Community have joined Mayor Webb's request. Still, the NRA seems determined to go to Denver.

Martin Lane Cochran - A Girl!!

On a positive and very happy, happy note, I welcome Martin Lane Cochran into this world, the first biological grandchild for me, a girl! The daughter of one of my three sons, John. Congratulations John and Sidra! Thank heaven for little girls!