A Year after Columbine Public Looks To Parents More Than Schools to Prevent Violence

Author: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
Publication: Non-journal
Topics: Age Group Gun Carrying Public Opinion Students U.S. / National.
Keywords: Child safety GUN control Legislation elementary school education national surveys parent responsibility parents, public opinion, school safety, schools, telephone surveys, violence
Bibliographic information +

A total of 1000 adults nationwide, including 283 parents of children aged 5 to 17 years, were interviewed by telephone from April 12 to16, 2000, one year after a high school shooting in Littleton, Colorado, in which 12 students and a teacher were killed and 24 others were injured. 85% of respondents believed that parents should take responsibility for preventing a recurrence of such incidents, 66% believed that controlling gun ownership was more important than protecting Americans’ rights to own guns, the majority submitted that creating more jobs and having community programs for young people would reduce violent crimes and that it was more important to enforce existing gun laws than to enact new ones. In addition, 60% believed that paying more attention to children with antisocial behaviors would be more effective than increasing school security, passing tougher gun control laws or reducing violence in popular entertainment. About one-third of parents attributed the perpetration of violent acts by youths to violence portrayed in the media.