Clinton Urges Talks About School Violence in TV Ads

WASHINGTON â€”  President Clinton introduced three public service announcements Tuesday that urged parents to talk with their children about violence.

“Our children need our help to deal with tough issues like violence. Please talk with your kids,� Clinton says in one of the spots.

Clinton used an event announcing the ads to renew his call for new gun control laws.

No law can stop every madman with a gun, he said, but sensible gun control will save lives and make children safer at school.

Reducing the “appalling ease� with which young people can get guns is essential to cutting youth violence, he said.

Gun control opponents in Congress and the National Rifle Assn. say it would be ineffective to require trigger locks or to close what the Clinton administration calls “the gun-show loophole� that allows for no-questions-asked purchases of some firearms.

� . . We would never do anything as a people if we gave in to our objections that all of our actions would have less than a 100% impact,� Clinton said.

The president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the three frank back-to-school messages in the aftermath of shooting rampages in high schools in Colorado and Georgia and copycat threats and violence that followed in schools elsewhere.

The administration also pledged $15 million in Justice Department community policing grants to focus on crime and violence in or near schools.

The messages, debuting today on major television and cable networks, include a toll-free number to call for a free booklet on how to talk to children, especially those ages 8 to 12, about safety and the dangers of weapons and gang violence. Similar radio ads are to air later this month.