Statement Before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Hearing on A Report on Violence in the Media and Children

September 13, 2000

Tom Diaz
Senior Policy Analyst
Violence Policy Center

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to present the views of the Violence Policy Center—a non-partisan, non-profit institute dedicated to the study of firearms violence in America—on the roots of violence among youth in this country. The Federal Trade Commission's report addresses one aspect of youth violence. However, it is crucial that we look at all facets of this issue, the gravity of which is beyond question.

The horrible events at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, last year snapped matters into focus for all Americans. Whether overall violence in our schools is up, down, or sideways became beside the point. No sane society can accept its children being gunned down in its very halls of learning. No caring society can accept a Columbine—much less a Columbine plus a Springfield, Oregon ...a Jonesboro, Arkansas...a West Paducah, Kentucky...a Pearl, Mississippi, and more. These are merely the better known school shootings in the United States within the last three years alone.

As horrible as these school shootings are, their deeper importance is as a warning signal of a pervasive problem festering in our society, the growing entanglement of children and firearms. In 1998, the last year for which data is available, 2,887 children—that is, young people 18 years of age and under—were killed by firearms. That number of deaths, in a very ordinary year in America, is the equivalent of 206 Columbine shootings.

I. We Must Address Easy Access to Guns as Well as Exposure to Violent Images

The causes of this epidemic of violence by and against young people in America are varied and complex. The FTC report addresses one of them. But one other single thread runs like a blood red marker through all of this youth violence. That bloody marker is not movies. It is not day care. It is not competing cliques of jocks and nerds, nor is it any of the score of other sophisticated "reasons" advanced to explain these shootings every time one occurs. The single constant factor is the unique availability of firearms to young people in the United States. Short of war, no other country in the world, and perhaps no other society in history, has given its children such unrestrained access to so many weapons capable of so much violence.

Yes, our children are bombarded from infancy with images of violent behavior. These images—increasingly explicit and realistic in movies, videos, and computer games—may inspire actual violent behavior among some children and among some adults. But whatever deviant urges these images inspire would be much less lethal if our children did not have the ready access to firearms that our society indulges today.

This raises fundamental questions for the policy debate you are engaged in. For example, which makes more sense? To try to change an entire culture's imaginative arts, to regulate its literature, and control its expressive freedoms? Or to more intelligently regulate the single thing that we know is involved over and over and over again in youth violence—the gun? Does it make sense to sacrifice real First Amendment rights while tiptoeing around putative rights under the Second Amendment, rights that the National Rifle Association and the gun lobby have grossly inflated?

In short, we need to worry more about how easy it is for our children to get real guns than about how many pictures of guns they see.

II. The Gun Industry Actively Markets Firearms to Children and Juveniles

It is no accident that America's children are literally awash in guns. The gun industry has worked hard to make it that way. It pours millions of guns into our society every year and aggressively seeks to attract children to using those guns.

We recoil at the blood of children shot down by firearms. But the gun industry sees children as the lifeblood of the firearms business.

The hard economic fact is that the gun industry has been faced with declining demand for three decades in its primary gun-buying market—older white males. So it has launched a crusade to recruit children (along with women and members of minority groups) into the ranks of the gun culture, what it euphemistically calls "the shooting sports." The industry has exerted enormous effort to develop a well-coordinated strategy, and spends millions upon millions of dollars to implement that strategy by recruiting young people into its heavily armed children's crusade. It works hand-in-hand with the gun lobby and with gun fanzines, and exploits youth-oriented magazines and other outlets, to promote guns to children.

The industry's primary objective is to recruit future customers to shore up its declining markets. It knows that a person exposed to firearms as a child is about three times more likely to buy guns as an adult than one who is not exposed to firearms. The industry and the gun lobby are also recruiting foot soldiers in the ongoing social and political debate about the proper role of and limits on firearms in our society.

However, the gun industry's techniques are not restricted to simply conditioning children to be future customers as adults. It goes so far as to market firearms directly to kids who are too young to buy them. The attitude of the industry is illustrated by a 1993 column by Grits Gresham in the National Shooting Sports Foundation's S.H.O.T. Business (distributed free of charge to manufacturers, dealers, and distributors) which observed:

Kids can't buy guns, you say? Well, yes and no. It's true that most students from kindergarten through high school can't purchase firearms on their own. But it's also true that in many parts of the country, youngsters (from preteens on up) are shooting and hunting. Pop picks up the tab. Whether they continue to shoot and hunt depends, to a great degree, on whether or not the desire is there. That's where you come in. Every decade there is a whole new crop of shining young faces taking their place in society as adults. They will quickly become the movers and shakers. Many of them can vote before leaving high school, whether they do or not. You can help see that they do....Are you in for the long haul? If so, it's time to make your pitch for young minds, as well as for the adult ones. Unless you and I, and all who want a good climate for shooting and hunting, imprint our positions in the minds of those future leaders, we're in trouble....¹

I have attached to this statement a few of the more striking examples among the many, many images we see daily of children and guns that the gun industry and its accomplices are using to promote guns among children.

What about guns in movies, television, and electronic games? Here we know that gun companies work to place specific firearms in such media in order to stimulate demand for that product. This should not surprise us. If so-called "product placement" works for makers of cigarettes (Lark in License to Kill) computers (Apple in Independence Day), running shoes (Reebok in Ghost and Nike in Forrest Gump), automobiles (BMW in Goldeneye), and alcoholic beverages (Budweiser in Flipper and Tin Cup), it should also work for guns.

The gun industry at least thinks that product placement works. One gun maker, Smith & Wesson, was reported to have paid International Promotions, a specialized product placement firm, to help get its guns into the movies. But such direct expenditures seem to be the exception. Instead, gun companies work closely with so-called "prop houses" to cast their guns as costars.

The president of a Long Island company that supplies weapons and pyrotechnics to movies told me last year that gun manufacturers "sometimes reach out to us if they have a new product and they think it will be hot." He said that manufacturers are "more than happy to provide us with what we need, or loan or give us a discount." A gun handler at the premier gun prop house in California confirmed this practice in a separate conversation with me. "Manufacturers express their wish to us," he said. "We work closely with most everybody. We have a long term relationship that works both ways."

The list of specific guns and gun makers that have benefitted from their few minutes on the screen range from Smith & Wesson's .44 Magnum Model 29 revolver, wielded by Dirty Harry, to Glock and Beretta semiautomatic pistols in several score movies, to so-called "Desert Eagle" Magnum pistols and endless varieties of shotguns and assault weapons.

Don't think that children attracted to guns do not know the brand differences among guns. They do.

Having said all that, however, the key point remains this: fascination with a given gun may be disturbing to some in the abstract. But it becomes lethal when children can get their hands on the guns that turn violent fantasies into mass killings. That is the core of our problem today.

If you think the problem has gone away, think again. According to a 1999 CDC survey of youth risk behavior, one out of every 20 high-school students (grades 9 thru 12) had brought a gun to school with them in the past month. And for males, it was even higher, nearly one out of every 10 had brought a gun to school. Kids know where to get the tools to implement their fantasies. We make it easy for them.

III. Kids' Access to Guns is the Result of Lack of Regulation of the Gun Industry

It is not a coincidence that the gun industry feels free to market its products to children. Nor is it a coincidence that the gun industry has completely restructured the civilian gun market in the last 50 years from one that was primarily sporting and recreation oriented to one that now emphasizes what an NRA official candidly admitted is the "Rambo factor"—high-capacity, high-powered handguns and military style assault weapons, designed and primarily useful for engaging other human beings in mortal combat.

The reason is simple. Unlike every other consumer product in America, excepting tobacco, firearms are not regulated for health and safety. This deadly immunity from basic product health and safety regulation is the biggest loophole in our nation's gun laws. It is worth noting that no committee of either house of Congress has ever held a hearing on the civilian gun industry—although it has closely scrutinized the health and safety aspects of the tobacco industry, the entertainment industry, the airline industry, and even the funeral industry.

Free from such basic regulation and rudimentary scrutiny, the gun industry over the last three decades has deliberately enhanced its profits by increasing the lethality—the killing power—of the products it sells. Lethality is the nicotine of the gun industry. Time and time again, the gun industry has injected into the civilian market new guns that are specifically designed to be better at killing and, not incidentally, to jolt lagging markets to life. The industry has relied on greater ammunition capacity, higher firepower in the form of bigger caliber, increased concealability, or all three to create demand for its products.

We regularly see the effects of this orgy of increased killing power all around us. Here are just a few of many examples:

• The explosion of handguns. In 1946, handguns accounted for only 8 percent of the civilian gun market in the United States. In 1994, they accounted for 54 percent! No wonder that more than two out of three of the one million Americans who have died by firearms violence since 1962 were killed with handguns, the perfect tool for killing a human being at close range.² In 1998, handguns were used in 82 percent of the homicides by juvenile offenders who used a firearm. Overall, 63 percent of victims of homicides by juvenile offenders were murdered with a handgun that year.

• The growth of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons. In the 1980s the gun industry introduced military-style assault weapons to the civilian market. The consequences of the unrestrained marketing of such killing machines can be seen in events like the massacre at Columbine High School, where the teenaged gunmen, armed with an assault pistol and a high-capacity carbine, were able to engage an armed security guard in a gun battle—and win!

• The promotion of "pocket rockets." The gun industry has lately been heavily promoting what it calls "pocket rockets," which are very small (palm-sized) high caliber, easily concealed handguns. These guns are ideal for stuffing into a child's back pack. After self-proclaimed white supremacist Buford O. Furrow, Jr. shot up the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, California, last year, he used a Glock pocket rocket to kill a postal employee, who happened to be a Filipino-American, as a "target of opportunity."³

There are other loopholes in existing law that help make it easier for children to get access to firearms.

A. Lack of Uniform Age Restrictions Makes it Easier for Kids to Get Guns

Federal law on guns and youth is currently a patchwork. There are no uniform federal restrictions on sales to minors or possession of guns by minors. Instead, the law treats different classes of guns differently and contains major loopholes, even within the restrictions. For example:

1. Handguns. Federal law prohibits anyone under 21 years old from buying a handgun from a federally licensed firearms dealer (FFL). And, nominally, federal law prohibits handgun possession by anyone under the age of 18 years old—although the law contains numerous exemptions.⁴ In other words, federal law has created a dangerous "grey zone" regarding youth and handguns. It is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to buy a handgun at a gun store. But it is legal for those over the age of 18 to possess a handgun. This leaves a dangerous gap for youth between the ages of 18 and 21.

   This gap is reflected in the following statistic: In 1997, 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds ranked first, second, and third in the number of gun homicides committed. Of all gun homicides where an offender was identified, 24 percent were committed by 18-to 20- year-olds.⁵ And handguns are the most common type of gun recovered from the 18-to-20 age group (85 percent according to the ATF's 1998 Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative report).

2. Long Guns (Shotguns and Rifles) Federal law prohibits juveniles under 18 from buying rifles and shotguns from FFLs. But possession of shotguns and rifles by juveniles is regulated solely at the state level. In many states it is legal for juveniles to possess both shotguns and rifles, although other states regulate or prohibit possession of either of these long guns. A 1998 poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News found that 15 percent of American youths owned their own gun.⁶

One of the most notorious loopholes is that which allows sales of all kinds of firearms at gun shows without background checks. These sales are made by so-called "hobbyists," many of whom are for all intents and purposes, other than a purposively blind federal law, simply unlicensed gun dealers. This loophole allowed a friend to buy two shotguns and one rifle for Columbine shooters Klebold and Harris with no background check. The friend later testified before the Colorado legislature that she would not have bought the guns if she had had to face a background check.

The Senate has passed an amendment that would close this gun show loophole. The Lautenberg amendment to S. 254 (juvenile justice legislation) would require that all firearm sales at gun shows be transacted by a federally licensed firearms dealer. The licensed dealer would be required to conduct a background check of the purchaser and keep records of the gun sales carried out at the gun show.

IV. International Comparisons Show Access to Guns is the Key

If movies were truly the source of our epidemic of youth gun violence, we would expect to see similar results in other countries where the same films are shown. But the record does not bear this premise out. In fact, the contrary is true. The devastating effect on American children of the ready availability of firearms is graphically illustrated when one compares gun death rates among U.S. children to children who live in other countries.

The international gross sales of violent movies is often close to and in some cases (such as True Lies and Die Hard: With a Vengeance) greater than U.S. gross. Although children in other countries are exposed to the same movies, videos, and music as American children, a recent CDC study showed that the overall firearm-related death rate among U.S. children aged 14 years and younger was nearly 12 times higher than among children in 25 other industrialized countries combined!

The firearms homicide rate in the U.S. was nearly 16 times higher than that of the other 25 countries. The firearms suicide rate was nearly 11 times higher than that of the other 25 countries. The unintentional firearms death rate was nine times higher than the other 25 countries.

The difference is not movies or cliques of jocks and nerds. The difference is guns. The United States has unparalleled rates of firearm ownership. According to one study published in Popular Government, Winter 2000, 28 percent of households in the United States have handguns. The next highest rate of handgun ownership is Switzerland with 12 percent. Most industrialized countries such as Canada and France have handgun-owning households in the low single digits (4.8 percent for Canada, 5.5 percent for France).

In summary, Mr. Chairman, the Violence Policy Center strongly believes that little real progress can or will be made on the problem of juvenile violence unless and until we grapple directly with the underlying problem of easy access to firearms by children and the promotion of the gun culture by the gun industry itself.

NOTES:

1) National Shooting Sports Foundation, SHOT Business (September/October 1993).

2) Data sources: Fatal Firearm Injuries in the United States 1962-1994. Violence Surveillance Summary Series, No. 3, 1997. Deaths: Final Data for 1995, Deaths: Final Data for 1996, Deaths: Final Data for 1997. National Vital Statistics Report.

3) "Alejandro Mayorkas Holds Briefing With Others on the Furrow Case," FDCH Political Transcripts (August 12, 1999).

4) The Violent Crime Control Law Enforcement Act of 1994 made it illegal for any person, with some exceptions, to sell or transfer a handgun or handgun ammunition to anyone under 18 years of age. The exceptions include: temporary transfer or possession or use to a juvenile in the course of employment, target practice, hunting, safety instruction, and with prior written consent of the juvenile's parent or guardian who is not prohibited from possessing a firearm; juveniles who are members of the Armed Forces of the United States or the National Guard; a transfer by inheritance of title (but not possession) to a juvenile; and, possession taken in self-defense or for other persons against an intruder into the residence of a juvenile or a residence in which the juvenile is an invited guest. It also made it unlawful for a juvenile, with the same exceptions, to possess a handgun or handgun ammunition.

5) The Department of the Treasury and The Department of Justice, Gun Crime in the Age Group 18 to 20 (Washington D.C.:  U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999), 2.

6) Laurie Goodstein, "Teen-Age Poll Finds a Turn to the Traditional," The New York Times, 30 April 1998, A1.