What Can We Do About Violence?; 102; Part 2: Domestic Violence, Street Violence

What Can We Do About Violence? Part II

BILL MOYERS: What can we do about violence? One answer is to grow fewer violent children. But instead of discouraging youthful Violence American culture nurtures it in powerful. Children learn destructive lessons from parents who abuse, reject, or neglect them. The proliferation of guns puts a lethal trigger in easy reach of troubled tempers. And the marketplace of popular culture turns violence into pleasure and profit. In this broadcast we'll look at some solutions to family violence, gun violence, and violence in media. By one account three million children ages 3 to 17 are exposed to parental violence every year. There are some four million reported incidents of domestic violence against women every year. The testimony of battered mothers reveals that children usually witness the abuse. And studies show those children to be at greater risk for problems later on. It was this home-grown terror that motivated Mark Wynn toward a new mission as an officer of the law.

911 OPERATOR:Can you give me a description of him?

911 CALLER: He's still out there somewhere he's supposed to have a gun.

911 OPERATOR:Alright, stay on the line with me.

911 CALLER: Okay.

911 OPERATOR:You're gonna have two people. You've got one girl that's been shoved up against the wall and she's bleeding, and you've also got a lady that's six months pregnant on the floor.

911 CALLER: I have a 3-year-old daughter. I, I'm quite scared. He has been here several times.

911 OPERATOR:Okay. Do you have your weapon on you?

911 CALLER: Yes sir I do.

911 OPERATOR:Okay, just-

911 CALLER: He's supposed to be going to get dynamite to come and blow up the apartment.

911 CALLER: He slammed her up into my door in my house.

911 CALLER: He busted out our back window!

911 OPERATOR:Does he drink? Or does he have a bad temper? Or does he do drugs? Or?

911 CALLER: He drinks, and I think he does drugs too.

[country western song: "Well, I got stoned the other night. When I got home we had a horrible fight. She said what's wrong with you? Ain't you got no respect. I kept going around in circles and I took a hit. I have a habit. I have a habit.'1

NARRATOR: In this country western mecca, 911 operators are inundated with domestic violence calls on a Friday night.

911

911 OPERATOR:Do you know if he carries any weapons or not?

911 CALLER: I don't know [sobbing, crying].

NARRATOR: Last year these 911 operators answered 18,000 domestic violence calls.

911 CALLER: I don't know. No I really don't [crying].

Sgt. MARK WYNN: It takes an unbelievable amount of courage for someone to call on someone they care about. They're not calling on somebody that they've seen break into a house somewhere, they're calling on the very person who they married.

NARRATOR: Mark Wynn is an 18-year veteran of the Nashville Police Department. Within the past six months, with lots of help from the community he has been able to create one of only six domestic violence the country. He supervises 35 police officers and detectives who strictly deal with domestic violence, and they treat domestic violence offenders just like any other violent suspect.

MARK WYNN: When we went on line here, we were looking at somewhere around 800 calls a month. Now we're looking at somewhere between 12 and 1300 calls per month. I'm talking about solid cases to investigate, and some would say, "Well look what you've done, you've created more crime." My answer is, "no it's always been there. "

Let's go O.K. we've got a location on him.

NARRATOR: They're looking for a suspect who was arrested several months ago for beating his wife and kidnapping their kids.

MARK WYNN: He's been kind of elusive with us. The officers have been trying to track him down, but he's on foot. He's a crack head. We've got an outstanding warrant on him for assault.

NARRATOR: Tonight he's stalking his wife and children.

MARK WYNN: He's been calling from a local restaurant, so we're going to the local restaurant to see if we can locate him.

Has there been a guy on your pay phone out here -black headed guy?

WOMAN: He's gone now.

MARK WYNN: How long has he been in here? Been gone?

WOMAN: About 100r IS minutes ago.

MARK WYNN: Where did he go? Do you know? You know which way? To the right or left?

NARRATOR: Even while they try to track him down the suspect is still harassing the victim.

MARK WYNN: See if you can find out where he's at?

STEVE HUNTLEY: 'That's what she's doing.

NARRATOR: His wife, Denise. She contacts them on their beeper.

STEVE HUNTLEY: The Holiday Inn Vanderbilt.

MARK WYNN: Ha, Ha, Ha. That's right across the street.

You see a white guy in a red coat, in blue jeans, on the phone, black headed?

NARRATOR: He got away, but two hours later they found him back at the same restaurant and arrested him.

MARK WYNN: A good arrest does not equal a conviction. A good arrest stops violence.

DENISE: [in court] He won't stop calling. He won't stop coming by the house and he assaulted me on Thursday night.

MARK WYNN: Because not only does it offer immediate protection for the children and the mother, it sends a message to the children this is wrong and when you do this you go to jail. .

DENISE: He's been threatening suicide tonight, he's tried to hit me with a car. I've had my nose reconstructed, I've had my cheekbones reconstruct ... this cheekbone, my nose reconstructed from him hitting me.

NARRATOR: These officers of Nashville's domestic violence unit have the right to

press charges in court on behalf of women and children.

MAGISTRATE: [in court] She's saying that you're calling her ...

DEFENDANT: No ma'am I'm not.

MAGISTRATE: -and that you're going by the house.

MARK WYNN: In Nashville, we've got zero tolerance for batterers. What we do in our city, we stop the violence immediately.

DEFENDANT: I understand that, that will verify that I have been there all day.

MARK WYNN:: In this system, they're prosecuted by police officers who investigate the cases, they go to court.

MAGISTRATE: Do you have an order of protection against him? DENISE, Witness: Yes I do. I've had two.

MARK WYNN: We help the victims with orders of protection, to maybe slow down or to stop future incidences of violence.

DENISE: And I've already filed for divorce. I live by myself. I'm just asking for him to leave me alone.

MAGISTRATE: Mr. Gray, stay away from her. Don't go around there. Don't walk around there.

DEFENDANT: I will not. I will not.

MARK WYNN: We can't expect the D.A. and we can't expect the judges to prosecute people with flimsy evidence.

[on camera] We present as much evidence as we can get our hands on so we can show the court how serious it is. And the court can only act when they've got a good case in the courtroom.

NARRATOR: Even though he has kept on harassing his wife, he can get out on a

$2000 bond by paying only a $60 deposit.

MARK WYNN: A lot of communities, they lump this in with other crimes. And it's not other crimes. It's the most serious crime. It's the most committed and the least reported crime in America.

MARK WYNN: [to Detective Matthews] And on the second notice we can arrest ...

Det. CAROLE MATTHEWS: Who does that?

MARK WYNN: [to Detective Matthews] On criminal trespass.

NARRATOR: Back at headquarters, Police Detective Carole Matthews and Sgt. Wynn are on another case. Detective Matthews is trying to catch this woman's abuser. She was brutalized for 96 hours in front of her young son.

Det. CAROLE MATTHEWS: She had been held virtually hostage by her husband for four days. He had beaten her with this. He had wrapped this sock around the end out of niceness to keep her from being cut by the very edges of this. Her son is 4 years old. He is very, very protective of his mother. He has not left her side. He seems to be a really well-mannered little boy . She's very protective of him too. Somebody needs to help these people.

MARK WYNN: We want officers to go out and treat people with respect. Don't take their dignity away from them. And treat them like victims of crime and deal with their problems. Because what's happened traditionally with law enforcement is that the victim is blamed a lot for this crime. Why did you stay? What did you say to make him do this? I've heard these kind of things. It's victim blaming. And there's nothing right about that, and the victim automatically says even you don't care.

JACK BURSACK, Radio Host: Domestic violence. Sgt. Mark Wynn on Police Station tonight.

MARK WYNN: [at radio station] We had 83 total murders and 25 were directly related to domestic violence.

JACK BURSACK: Let's go back to the telephone lines to Barbara from Nashville.

JACK BURSACK: [on phone] I just wanted to make a comment on the fact that my son and I were both in a domestic violent home. It had some pretty traumatic effects on both of us. In fact, my son is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

MARK WYNN: Children don't even have to be touched physically by an offender to feel the pain and the suffering that's involved in domestic violence. Unless we offer at least basic safety for the mother, we can't expect basic safety for the children.

STEVE HUNTLEY: [during roll call] Well, it hasn't stopped. As soon as he 50t out of jail he started calling her today.

MARK WYNN: [at roll call] What we need to do from this point on is, we need to start charging him instead of having her sign the warrants over.

STEVE HUNTLEY: Yeah.

[in patrol car] Her father said that maybe she should get a gun but I don't think that's the answer to her problems. If she gets a gun with the small children in the house it's no telling what could happen.

Det. McALISTER: [in Denise's House] We can record the calls when-

NARRATOR: Denise's husband is at it again. He's constantly harassing her on the phone. So at her request domestic violence officers are tapping her phone for stalking evidence.

CHILD: Mama I'm scared.

MARK WYNN: These are the victims who won't step up to me and you and say "I'm a victim of crime," because they don't know how or they've been told not to. And if we can't protect their lives then why are we here?

DENISE: [taped conversation with suspect] Todd, you're not supposed to be calling, what about when you hit me? What about when you strained my arms. What about when you ...

NARRATOR: After eight more calls from her husband, police had the evidence they needed. [Denise's taped conversation with suspect] You know what. Tell it to a judge.

MARK WYNN: Let's get a harassment warrant on him.

STEVE HUNTLEY: Your honor, we would ask for a high bond in this matter because apparently the message isn't getting across to this young man. Magistrate JOY SIMS: He's got the message. How much plainer could it be?

STEVE HUNTLEY: Well, evidently he doesn't understand it. Magistrate SIMS: But it's just not. He understands. You understand, don't you? Because you speak English, don't you? And you understand.

MARK WYNN: Our courts are our partners. They're part of this process. When they hold them accountable for the assaults, you see stiffer sentences and the message begins to get out that if you hit your wife and if you hit your children in Nashville, you're gonna go to jail.

All of us. Not just police, but the prosecutors, the social services, the community, the churches, the schools, everybody has to wake up. And say until we hold people accountable in the family, and not just say it, I mean do it. Then we're gonna keep generating violent criminals year after year after year. Because I was almost a violent criminal. I'm telling you, I, I, by the grace of God I'll say it again, and my mother s strength. I could be sitting here today talking to you in a prison uniform instead of a police uniform.

NARRATOR: Mark Wynn grew up in a violent home. In fact, he tried to kill his stepfather when he was 7 years old to stop him from beating up his mother.

MARK WYNN: Children learn to be violent and they bring it into their adult life. We were taught to be violent by a violent personality who was my stepfather. Many times the police had come to my home and many times they walked away. Many times the neighbors heard the screams, and saw the fights in the yard and knew what was going on and never called the police. My step father was an alcoholic, but he was violent sober and he was violent drunk. The only time he wasn't violent was when he was unconscious. And a lot of kids are in jail today because they have killed their abusive parent. As a matter of fact, a higher number of children are in jail today for killing their abusive parent than they are for drive by shootings or drug deals. So every time that I stand up and speak against domestic violence, I'm standing up and I'm speaking against him and what he did to us.

BILL MOYERS: Family violence is second only to larceny among crimes committed in Davidson County, Tennessee. Chances are it's high where you live too. To reduce it, the whole community has to stigmatize it. So you may want to ask your own police to consult Sgt. Wynn, who can show them how it's done. Also inquire if your community has a safe haven for women terrorized at home. There are three times as many animal shelters in America as there are shelters for battered women. Where they exist, these shelters can always use volunteers.

[Statistic: Though America's overall crime rate has gone down over the last decade, the death rate from firearms has risen.]

California Assembly Select Committee on Gun Violence, Louis Caldera, Chairman. Los Angeles Public Library, Mark Taper Forum, October 20, 1994.

MISSY ZIETSOFF: Justin was the finest son a mother could wish for. He was loving, intelligent, athletic, handsome, and independent. And now he's dead... Justin was murdered with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic gun ....They cruelly, cowardly, and deliberately destroyed a human life. They chased him down, shooting him through his heart and his lungs. A hard bullet through soft flesh. As his life blood drained, he died alone. With pain, panic and cold darkness. That I am stuck with-imagining for the rest of my life.

DEANE CALHOUN: Over seven million new guns enter the stream of commerce annually or over 20,000 per day....These are small guns that are being used by small hands. They can fit in places like a pocket -they're cheap, they're made with cheap materials. They can be thrown away like a BIC lighter after use. Ninety percent of the teenagers in California who are murder are murdered with guns. The leading cause of spinal cord injury of youth ID California used to be driving and diving, now it is shootings.

SHERMAN SPEAR: In 1988 I found myself with a gun pointed to my head, while someone asked me where was a friend of mine. Because I couldn't answer where my friend was, he decided that I wasn't cooperative enough. And put a gun to my head and shot me three times -once in the head, once in the neck, and once in the chest. As a result of that I wound up a permanent T-l paraplegic for life.

GLENDA LEE-BARNARD: Three years ago, my son dragged his body across the floor, already paralyzed and broken, and made a 911 call-

[audiotaped 911 call]

DAVID LEE: Hello ...

OPERATOR: Yeah, who's this?

DAVID LEE: It's David - I can't move my legs...

OPERATOR: Okay, David ....where're you shot at, David? David?

DAVID LEE: I can't even move. I can only move from the waist up...

GLENDA LEE-BARNARD: My son was proud of himself when he'd been home from the hospital for six months, and I came home one day, and he said, "Mom, look, I can take snacks to my room." And he was in the kitchen on the floor, dragging a laundry basket that he had attached a rag to down into the den-which was his room.... I applauded my son as he dragged that basket of snacks down to his room, and my heart broke. If he were here, I would not tell you how he pees - I would not tell you that in order to have a bowel movement, he has to sit on a toilet and put his hand in his body and pull it out; That's what people in wheelchairs have to do. And that's what we're doing to our children when we shoot them.

STEPHEN SPOSATO: A psychotic with no criminal record decided to become a criminal one day, and kill as many people as he could. And he started on the 34th floor of 101 California Street. And he purchased several assault weapons, with 50-round clips. Brought in hundreds of rounds of ammunition, all of which are perfectly legal in the state of California-. And he went up on his spree and decided-to start at the conference room. My wife was one of the first people to take five bullets in her back. He was not required to have a license or a special permit to purchase this incredible firepower. It was not required for either one of those. Yet when I went to get my wife's ashes out of the crematorium, I had to go get a permit. We cannot talk about violence prevention without talking about gun control. The most violent crime of all is murder -it impacts thousands of people. In my case, it has not only taken an innocent life, but left my daughter Megan and I with the trauma. It'll never go away. It'll never go away. I asked her what she wanted for her second birthday. She said she wanted to see Mommy. Guess what she's gonna want to do for her third birthday?

[Statistic: Homicide is the leading cause of death among young African-American males.]

GEORGE MODICA: In 1990, I was walking down the street in South Central Los Angeles and there was two youngsters walking down the street. They didn't have on no gang attire, they didn't shout any gang slogans or anything. They didn't even show any signs. And I spoke to them politely. And as I proceeded to walk away, I looked back because I had developed a habit growing up in here in the city to, always look behind me, and I seen a gun pointed at me. And so I tried to run. And as I was trying to run they pulled the trigger. And I hit the ground and I tried to get up and found out that my legs, the use of my legs wasn't there. And at that time I found myself crying out to Jesus and asking him to save me because I didn't want to die out there in the streets alone.

NARRATOR: In 1992 George Modica joined a group of other gunshot victims -Los Angeles Teens on Target, or TNT. They speak with other young people at schools, community centers, and churches on ways to prevent violence.

GEORGE MODICA: And you were courageous and brave to stand up in your community and say, "Look, we need some help -we need some intervention and prevention in this community. "

With Los Angeles Teens on Target I found there a-a support group.... And it was a group that I could join faith with. They believe the same thing that I believe. They believe that there's hope in the midst of all this confusion. And that's the same thing that I believe.

Dr. LUIS MONTES: The reason I started the Los Angeles Chapter of Teens On Target was mainly because of the devastating injuries that I was seeing among youth.

It's very devastating to have to take care of and to have to sit here and talk to the families ... and tell them that their son or daughter is never going to walk again.

I knew as a physician that these injuries could be prevented. We have to look at the guns and firearms as the lethal link in this chain of violence. There's an industry promoting violence in the United States.... We thought what was better than have... victims of violence communicate with other youth about stopping the epidemic of Violence.

JUAN MORENO: Hi, my name is Juan and I'm 21 years old. Me and my younger brother we had to spend the night at my cousin's house, and somehow he went under the bed and he came out with a big old .22-caliber rifle, and when he called my name, he must have grabbed it from the trigger. And he shot me in the chest and it came out through the back of my neck. I got shot right here see it [points to his throat], the back of my neck -left me paralyzed from the' waist down...

Dr. LUIS MONTES: One of the things I think that we've got to do is make them realize that our youth are suffering, that it's not necessarily their fault. How can you hold a 13-year-old accountable for being shot? 1st TEENAGER: I'm 19. I've done been shot at. I've been shot. And you know it ain't no way I'm gonna put my gun down, because as long as somebody at me, I'm gonna do at them. You know, somebody trying to kill me -hey, if I'm going down, you best believe that you're going with me.

GEORGE MODICA: And we need vision in this community. Without vision in this community, you will continue to see your sons and daughters being afflicted as a result of a gunshot wound. I hate to say it, if you don't get no vision, there will be more people in this community dying. You see?

There are some that's putting down the guns, but there are still those yet and still that are still walking around with guns -that don't want to put them down. So what we have to do is deprogram and reprogram these youth. And that's what Los Angeles Teens on Target is doing,

[at Bunche Middle School] What is anger?

JASON: If anybody says something that you don't like, you just go off on them and get real mad and fuss at 'em and send them away and something.

GEORGE MODICA: Being in a wheelchair and being injured has an asset to it.... We have been humbled. We're not speaking above their level, we're speaking from a grassroots level. You know, from the root of the cause. You know, because we've been there. What's gonna happen, in this particular role play is that as soon as he's confronted with the "he said, she said," he's gonna end up defending himself and they're gonna fight. This is all "he said, she said," we don't know if it's true or not.

Dr. LUIS MONTES: One of the objectives for Los Angeles Teens is to educate the policy-makers and educate them about the epidemic of violence. Because if you look at Violence intervention, sometime people at the top, who are making the policies who are deciding where the money is going to, may not be getting the right picture,

FIDEL VALENZUELA: [at California Assembly Gun Hearing] I come here before you from the heart and tell you what's happening out there on the streets. As the coordinator for Los Angeles Teens on Target ...

Dr. LUIS MONTES: And it's not so much that the American public is in favor of guns, that the American public in reality is in favor of more gun control ... The problem comes is that, I think that the legislators are controlled by a small group in our society who is run by the gun industry, who have a vested interest in continuing the proliferation of firearms in our society.

[with students] How many of you know people who have gotten injured or killed from firearms? Look at their hands. Look at this. Look around.

I don't think the adolescents of today are too much different from the adolescents of yesterday. But the difference is that now the adolescents are settling their differences With guns and that fist fights are turning into gun fights and that what would be a normally ... a bruise to the face or a hurt ego, is now a death or a permanent injury.

GEORGE MODICA: And the people want to eliminate gun violence or if people want to eliminate violence in the community, it's gonna take the people the people's gonna have to get involved, The policy makers don't have the answer: You see? And we Los Angeles Teens on Target, we are just a small part of the puzzle. [Statistic: There are more gun dealers in America than gas stations.] [Public Service Announcement: Two Mothers]

BILL MOYERS: Public service spots like that one are being run in California by the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention. They've raised public awareness in a state where more than a thousand handguns are purchased every day and where almost 3,000 people are murdered and tens of thousands more injured with firearms every year. Because are so pervasive in America, more people are dying and both killers and killed alike are younger than ever. But the rising toll of casualties has aroused people who might never have thought of themselves as activists. People like James Murray of Massachusetts. What he saw happening prompted Citizen Murray to take up pen in one hand and petition in the other -just like Boston rebels of old.

JAMES MURRAY: So many people I've talked to say to me, you know, "There's nothing you can do about it, they're always going to get guns, whoever 'they' are, they're always going to get the guns. There's nothing you can do about it. The gun lobby is t~ powerful." And I disagree. Because, personally, I have been able to do some things; ~d myself and a few neighbors in my inner city neighborhood, I know there ,are things that can be done. And so I come up with-here's 50 things. I'm not saying they are all of the things or the 50 best things you can do about guns, but you're telling me there's nothing you can do as a citizen in the greatest democracy the world's ever known. And I'm telling you here's 50, take your pick. Do some or all, but do one. Do something.

[Tips from Murray's Book] ....

-If you have a gun in your home, consider getting rid of it!

-Teach your children what to do if they find a gun.

-If you know of a child with a gun, notify authorities immediately.

-Demand enforcement of existing gun laws.

-Monitor the disposition of gun cases.

-Talk to your children about the reality of gunshot wounds and death.

BILL MOYERS: Tell me about your neighborhood.

JAMES MURRAY: I live in a neighborhood called Jamaica Plain, which is in Boston's inner city. A couple years ago there was a 15-year-old high school student shot to death by an adult sniper about a block from my house. Two high school kids were shot to death on the subway line that I take, one right at the station that I board the tram every day. Fourteen-year-old kids have brought guns into my son's school. So when people say to me "Why are you involved in it?" I said, "You know, do I need any more reason?" I live here, this is my country, this is my city. We're in serious trouble. I don't need to be an expert on guns. You know, I've bandied them, I'm a Vietnam veteran and played with all their toys. You know, in Vietnam we bad better gun control than we have here today in America. We had to bring our weapons to the armory when we were off-duty. We didn't bring them to our tents, and we were in charge of security. Because one M-16's a very dangerous piece of equipment. And we bad-I think we bad respect for the weapons. And there's no respect for-for that today with a lot of people. So many people go out and get a gun, you know, an assault weapon. When we went into a-into a populated area, city, say like Natrang [PH], you couldn't bring a gun into town. And I know every Vietnam veteran out there who's watching this, no matter how they may feel about the issue, you know, will-will agree, well confirm that you couldn't do that, you couldn't just walk around town with a gun m Vietnam, in the world's biggest mad house in the '60s. Like you can do today here.

BILL MOYERS: Did you go out and try to talk to your neighbors about this Issue? Did you try to organize them?

JAMES MURRAY: I felt that maybe we could do something locally. So I said, "Why don't we put-try to put a non-binding question on the ballot." All right, because it was just-it's a policy advisory question, it doesn't take away anybody's rights. It just lets people express an opinion. And I talked with people at the attorney general's office, and they said we could do it and how to do it. They were very helpful. So we drafted a one-paragraph referendum question that read simply "Should the representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation banning the sale, transfer, and possession of handguns in the city of Boston? Yes or. no." I thought that was fairly simple. It was as simple as we could get it. I had a little green bag petitions with me. I went over to Charlestown, which is a-I know you're familiar with the neighborhood. It's where John Kennedy began his career. You know, traditionally-traditionally conservative, s lot of Irish blue collar working class folks, good people. And stood in front of the little mall and started asking people if they would sign a petition to put a question about banning handguns m the City. And the reaction was incredible. Nobody yelled at me. People were lining up to ask if they could sign it, could they go home and get their friends and sign it. One woman told me, "My son was shot to death 20 years ago." There were guys coming up With Desert Storm hats and stuff and signing this petition. Yeah. And we were-we were white, we were black, we were Hispanic, we were gay, straight, Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal -not all at once, of course individually. When the smoke cleared -no pun intended -on election day -and we had no money to publicize this thing -people saw the question and they voted on It, they read It. It had been overwhelmingly approved by the voters. Sixty-two percent of the people who voted, voted to ban handguns in Boston. I think it-it caused a lot of people to take a second look. That's what we were hoping for -not to take on the gun lobby. And they-they did spend some money against it. But to let the elected official~ know, to educate them, "Look, this is how people really feel. This is not a survey, It's not tainted. It's a certified ballot question. It was a clean election." Most people, I think, didn't even know it was the on ballot, because we didn't-we never held a fundraiser. I wrote letters to the editor to let people know it's on the ballot. And they read It and they voted. That's the American way.

[Statistic: Gunshot wounds to young people under 16 nearly doubled in major urban areas over a three year period] [HBO Public Service Announcement: Stray Bullet]

STEPHEN TERET: For years we as a society just haven't looked at the gun as a-as a product. We've focused our attention on-on the person who pulls the trigger. And yet we've focused no attention at all on the person who makes the trigger. But if you think of the gun as a-as a product itself, the gun can be changed. How the gun is manufactured can be changed. How many guns manufacturers make-how they're marketed. All of that can be changed.

BILL MOYERS: Well, let's be specific. Let-let's list some things we court do about guns if we treat them as you suggest, as consumer products. Very briefly describe them for me.

STEPHEN TERET: Well, one thing we could -- is child-proof -- guns. By child-proofing your gun, I mean, make a gun so that it's inoperable by a young child. Th-this is easily done. In fact, it was done from the late 1880's to the late 1930's one of the major gun manufacturers made a gun that it advertised as a child-proof gun. The gun had-something called a "grip safety." So the part of the gun that would be m the back of your hand over here had a lever, and this part of your hand had to depress that lever before you could effectively pull the trigger and discharge the gun. The reason that the gun was child-proof was that a child's hand was both too small and not strong enough, so the child couldn't depress that lever and pull the trigger at the same time. A pretty simple technology and one that existed for 100 years. There's no reason in my mind why, if a child is shot by another child, why that should not result in laws against the gun manufacturer for failure to make a child-proof gun. And m my mmd, that's a perfectly winnable type of lawsuit.

We could personalize guns. And by personalizing guns-I would mean by that make the gun so that only the authorized user can shoot the gun: Now there would be high technology ways and low technology ways of doing that. Oh, absolutely. A-a low technology way would be put a simple combination lock on the gun. There are high technology ways and I wish that-that I were more adept at engineering, that I could-explain them very carefully. But they involve the authorized user wearing a-a ring or a bracelet that communicates either electronically or magnetically with the gun, so that the gun knows if I'm in the hand of the person wearing this ring, the gun will operate. If the gun is in the hand of someone not wearing the ring, the gun won't operate. This exists. There is a-a gun manufacturer in Texas that's making revolvers, .357 revolvers-that require the user of the gun to be wearing a ring. Now if guns were personalized in that that regard, again, you eliminate some of those unintended childhood deaths. But I think it'd eliminate a lot more deaths. For instance, the-the depressed 14-year-old who finds his father's or his mother's gun in the house and-and-and-and in a fit of momentary depression, takes his life. That gun would be inoperable by the 14-year-old without that ring. Or even some crimes committed with guns. Many crimes that are committed with guns are committed with guns that are stolen out of homes in burglaries. So if a gun is stolen out of a home and it's one of these personalized guns, the gun's gonna be basically valueless on the street when it's marketed to some-some young kid who wants to launch himself into a criminal career. The gun's not gonna work for him if he doesn't have that ring. So I think, again, by using existing technologies, we can eliminate some of these gun deaths.

[Statistic: In one year, 4,940 Americans under the age of 19 died from gunshot wounds; 538 of them were shot accidentally.]

BILL MOYERS: While children learn about violence in their real-life families and on real-life streets, they also grow up today surrounded by ghastly simulated reality. Streams of mass-produced images pour into their social environment and inner lives, all for profit. Those violent movies, and gangster rappers glorifying violence, and TV crime shows and local news shows replaying every ghoulish promo over and over, and the brutal video games -they're all responding to the bottom line. It's not a question to me of whether Beavis and Butthead provoke some kid to burn his house down. The question is what happens to our children when the marketplace is their most powerful mentor, the arbiter of their values, inculcating in them this one lesson: If you want juice, power, money, ratings, respect... use violence. Because in the media suites and on the streets, violence sells.

DEBORAH PROTHROW-STITH: Well, we are a country that-that's infatuated with violence. We really like violence a lot. Some of us are in love with violence or addicted to it. We celebrate it. We're entertained by it. We applaud it. We run to read about it, to see it. We encourage our children sometimes to fight. We don't want a wimp for a child. In a lot ways, the cultural issues are as important as the family issues because even when a family is trying to give the right message, a child begins to learn from outside of that family different messages. And as I travel across the country, one thing that I see pretty universally among American children and that is an admiration for violence.

GEORGE MODICA: I can remember back at being 8 and 9 years old looking at Dutch Schultz and AI Capone.... And I would see how they would do them drive-bys and stuff and that would influence my behavior as well as my friends. They had the .22 Thompsons, the machine guns it intrigued me, especially Rifle Man. He could shoot it real fast and quick, you know. And I was intrigued by that-and they showing the glamor and the power of having a gun in your possession... And later on, I developed a fantasy for guns and so I joined into a subculture which was a gang. A lot of youth look at these movies and they're thrilled. And a lot of them is excited to go get a gun and use it. Even try it out.

DAVID WALSH: The average child in the United States, if he or she watches the average amount of television, will witness 200,000 acts of violence by the time that they're 18 years old. A major way that kids learn is by the simple process of observation and imitation.... I mean, that's the way children learn how to throw a baseball. That's the way children learn how to write their alphabet. That's the way children learn how to dance. That's the way children learn how to talk. That screen becomes a window through which they learn about the world, through which they pick up values, through which they learn about how to handle different situations. If I'm in the television business, and my goal is to get people to pay attention, so that I can sell my messages, then I'm going to do the things that are going to get people to pay attention. ... And three very, very effective ways of doing it are violence, sexuality, and humor.

If you and I, if you and I were, went out for lunch together. And we were walking down a busy street. And then, if, all of a sudden, you and I broke into a heated argument. And that heated argument escalated. And we started yelling at each other. And then, all of a sudden, we started hitting each other, what would all the people on the street do? They'd stop, and they'd watch. In fact, as it heated up, and as it escalated, and if you and I started really getting violent with each other, people would come from all places to see. People would come down the block to see what's going on. It grabs our attention. The reason it grabs our attention is that we have an emotional response to it. It literally stimulates kind of an adrenaline rush. And so, things that stimulate an adrenaline rush get us to pay attention. Let's take Mortal Kombat for-for-as an example.

BILL MOYERS: The video game.

DAVID WALSH: Mortal Kombat, the video game, best-selling video game in-in history. Very, very violent as a theme. In Mortal Kombat, as you get proficient at the game, you can literally deal lethal blows to your opponent. Not just-not just lethal blows, but lethal blows in the form of being able to rip out vital organs and snap the spine of your opponent. I'm sure it was a very creative group of people and talented people that put that together. And I would be willing to bet that many of those people -individually are people just like you and me. And if they have kids, they're probably concerned about their kids. They probably want their kids to grow up to be healthy, happy people. But when they step into the realm of putting together that game and bringing it to market, the operative question is no longer, "Is this good for my kid?" The operative question is: Will it make money? There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that what we have to be able to do is balance our desire to make profits with a sense of responsibility to our children.

One of the first things that hits me in viewing those images, Bill, is, is the smiles that accompany the violence. It's, the message, the message coming across to kids is, this is fun. This is enjoyable. We never see the suffering that follows those kinds of experiences.... And even though kids, on an intellectual level, might be able to say, yes, that's fake. That's not real. That they are constantly incorporating a set of images which kind of make connections, that, that, that aren't on an intellectual or a cognitive level, but more on an emotional level. And a lot of times in promos of movies that are coming out, all we'll get are the violent images. It's like that's the attraction. That's how I get people into the box office, by making it more and more--emphasizing the violence? You know, we talked before about three things that are-that can often stimulate some kind of an emotional response. Violence, sex and humor. And oftentimes, those three things are combined, either in twos or all threes to get maximum effect. And so we get violence and sex together. In-in for example, slasher movies. And women are by and large the target.

I believe that most parents really are still motivated by the question, "What's good for our kids?" But I think all too often, the motivating question in the larger, anonymous society is ... will it make money? We are sacrificing our children at the altar of financial profit.

JAMES Q. WILSON: Turn off the television set. Turn off the computer game. Tum off the Nintendo, at least for several hours every day.

ANGELA BLACKWELL: In Minneapolis, Minnesota, they have a tum off the violence day in which they try to get people all over the community not to watch violence, whether it's a music video, not to listen to violence-if it's a record or a CD. Not to watch newscasts that have violence-just get the violence out of your life. For one day in terms of all these things. To bring violence into the home. Their notion is that this isn't going to stop violence in America. It's not even going to stop violence in Minneapolis. But everything seems out of your control until you begin to act. Until you begin to say, "What can I do personally?" And we can all tum off the violence coming into our homes. If we do it for one day, it tells us that we're part of a community. Because we're doing this together. If we do it for one day, it gives us a brief moment of feeling like we have some power over it and it probably begins to inspire people to think about other things they can do individually that they have power over, and other things that they can do collectively.

DEBORAH PROTHROW-STITH: The role of parents as an example, I think is an extremely important one. Men have to be examples to boys of manhood without violence. To counter some of that super-hero junk. Women have to be examples to young girls of womanhood without violence. Parents also have to talk to their children about the cultural issues, watch television with children, explain what has just been seen, watch the movies. Sometimes when I'm watching with my children, I'll say something like, "You know I bet that man has to have a funeral. I wonder if he has any children." Now of course this is an incidental character who is just killed. And the movie-the story has just moved on. But my effort is to draw attention to the fact that violence and death have consequences.

BILL MOYERS: In our reporting we found a lot of people doing different things about media violence. Here are some of their tips for taking action. Just a few of their suggestions: One. Organize community groups to campaign for .quality programming and to urge advertisers not to sponsor TV violence. Two. Form video clubs to share suitable films for children. Three. Use the American Library Association's recommendations for quality videos. Four. Watch with your children. Talk about their reactions to violence. Discuss whether violence was gratuitous or necessary, rewarded or punished, funny or serious. Explain why violent behavior is not acceptable. Five. Ask for electronic locking devices that enable parents to take back control of the TV set. Six. Get mad as hell and don't take it anymore. Demand enforcement of the Children's Television Act of 1990. We'll send all the tips we compiled to your local public station so you can pick up a copy if you want it. A movement is growing around the issue of media violence. Millions of people are realizing that it's not just a matter of what we're watching. It's about what we're becoming.

JAMES Q. WILSON: I think in the long run, the most troubling problem this nation may face is not crime and not drugs or certainly not them simply. It is the fact that we are increasingly raising our children in isolation from human contact. We are turning over to electronic devices, ranging from television programs to VCRs to electronic games and computer games the task of occupying ourselves. And in particular, our children, during all or most of their free time. This social isolation produced by this may, in the long run, tum out to be one of this century's greatest blunders. People acquire morality as a consequence of human interaction. We teach each other by our expectations and our actions what is good and what is expected. And we conform to those expectations partly because we want to, partly because it's useful for us to. To the extent that we eliminate those interactions and isolate ourselves in whatever way, we are reducing the chances that we will learn what it means to be fully human. This change, if it occurs, will occur so slowly that we will not notice it. But at some time, we will look back and say to ourselves, "What did we do wrong?"