President Clinton's remarks on the Columbine High School shooting: transcript

Key points

• Clinton says he and Hillary are shocked and saddened by the shooting in Littleton, where two students opened fire on classmates.
• He has spoken with Colorado's governor and the county commission chair, and has asked the Attorney General and Education Secretary to help local authorities.
• A crisis response team is ready to travel to Colorado, and he wants counselors sent to families and children quickly.
• He says the country must help children resolve conflicts with words, not weapons, and recognize early warning signs of violence.
• Asked about an epidemic of school shootings, he avoids the word and says people should wait for the facts and let the community grieve.
• He says statistically schools are safe, but this school was clearly the most dangerous place in Colorado that day, and he urges communities to study the school safety handbook.

Chapters

1. 0:18Condolences and federal assistance for Littleton
2. 2:06Reaching children and spotting warning signs
3. 3:15Questions on last fall's conference and an epidemic
4. 5:45Death toll and calls for specific action
5. 6:51What America should wake up to
6. 7:56School safety statistics and closing words

Full transcript

0:18I want to begin by saying that Hillary and I are profoundly shocked and saddened by the tragedy today in Littleton where two students opened fire on their classmates before apparently turning their guns on themselves. I have spoken with Governor Bill Owens and County Commission Chair Patricia Holloway and expressed my profound concern for the people of Littleton. I have spoken to Deputy Attorney General Larry Colder and who, along with Attorney General Reno, is closely monitoring the situation. I've asked the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education to stand ready to assist local law enforcement, the schools, the families, the entire community during this time of crisis and sorrow.

1:11A crisis response team is ready now to travel to Colorado and I strongly believe that we should do whatever we can to get enough counselors to the families and the children as quickly as possible. I know the other communities that have been through this are also ready to do whatever they can to help. But I think that Patricia Holloway would not mind if I said that amidst all the turmoil and grief that she and others are experiencing, she said to me just a moment ago that perhaps now America would wake up to the dimensions of this challenge if it could happen in a place like Littleton, and we could prevent anything like this from happening again.

2:06We pray that she is right. We don't know yet all the hows or whys of this tragedy. Perhaps we may never fully understand it. St. Paul reminds us that we all see things in this life through a glass darkly, that we only partly understand what is happening. We do know that we must do more to reach out to our children and teach them to express their anger.

2:40And to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons. And we do know we have to do more to recognize the early warning signs that are sent before children act violently. To the families who have lost their loved ones, to the parents who have lost their beloved children, to the wounded children and their families, to the people of the community of Littleton, And I can only say tonight that the prayers of the American people are with you.

3:15Thank you very much. Mr. President, you tried to get this message out last fall. Is there anything additional that you can say or that the federal government can do to prevent things like this from happening? SECRETARY BLINKEN Well, I think on this case, it's very, very important that we have the facts insofar as we can find them out. You know, we had the conference here last fall. The Attorney General and the Secretary of Education prepared the handbook for all the schools that we asked to be widely used.

3:48And we do have, from bitter and sad experience, a great cadre of very good, effective grief counselors. My guess is that they will be needed in abundance there for the children. I think after a little time has passed, we need to have a candid assessment about what more we can do to try to prevent these things from happening. Mr. President, there seems to be an epidemic of these kinds of incidents now. There was Paducah, Kentucky, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Springfield, Oregon, and several others. Would you characterize Do you realize this is an epidemic affecting the nation's school system?

4:32I wouldn't want to use that word. What I would like to know is whether we can learn enough from this, which in its dimensions apparently is much greater than even the others were, and see what else we can do. I had a very interesting conversation this afternoon with Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, And as all of you know, lost her own husband and son sustained a wound as a result of the shooting incident on the commuter train.

5:09And that's what we talked about. I think tonight we owe it to the people of Littleton and to the families involved in this tragedy to let them Go through the grieving and deal – and try to get the facts. And then the rest of us have a responsibility to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't make 1999 a year like last year, that we don't have another rash of this, that we really can be more effective in preventing it. And I wish I could say more tonight, but I don't think I can.

5:45Mr. President, have you been told, sir, that the death toll is as high as the 25-figure that we've heard? And secondly, sir, every time one of these things happens, we go through this course of hand-wringing and say we've got to stop it from happening again. Is there anything specific and concrete that you'd like to see happen that hasn't happened yet? Well, I don't want to make a – there are, but what I would like to do is take a couple of days because we don't know what the facts are here.

6:18And keep in mind, the community is an open wound right now. They have suffered as much as anyone can suffer. This is the largest group of fatalities, whatever the numbers are, and I've heard various numbers even as much as five minutes ago right before I came out. I'd like to answer that question, but I think anything I say tonight could only add to the pain of the people in Littleton and not serve to solve the problem. So I will answer that question when I have more facts and after we let a little time pass.

6:51Mr. President, you're afraid that people will wake up. Wake up to what, sir? Well, I think, you know, there are a lot of kids out there who have access to weapons and apparently more than guns here and who build up these grievances in their own mind and who are not being reached and it's not just Littleton we know that now we've had lots and lots and lots of places so it's I don't know how many of you have been there but I've actually been there I know the community and it's a wonderful place and I think I can't do better than what Patricia Holloway said that the Commission chair, you know, if it can happen here Then surely people will recognize that they have to be alive to the possibility that it could occur in any community in America And maybe that will help us to keep it from happening again but You know what we put out before you know the efforts we've made and I just think that tonight

7:56We need to focus on the families that lost their kids, on the children that are wounded, on the grieving of the community, and give this thing a day or two for the facts to emerge, and then I'll try to have more to say to you. On just that point, Mr. President, at the time you issued, you had that conference last year, and your administration said that students are still safer sitting in a classroom than they are walking down the street. Do you think Americans still think that's true? Well, statistically, for all the whole 53 million kids in our schools, it's true.

8:30But, you know, from the facts we're hearing about what happened at this school and the possibility that explosives were out there, that hang grenades were available, that other things were there, it obviously wasn't true there. That was obviously the most dangerous place in Colorado today. So I don't want to – but that doesn't – that shouldn't make people believe that every school is in danger. What it should make every community do is to study this handbook we put out and see what lessons can be learned here.

9:04But again, you know, tonight I think the American people ought to be thinking about those folks in Littleton. And tomorrow and in the days ahead, we'll have more time to kind of gather ourselves and our determination and go back at this again. Thank you.

Source and licence

Recording: File:President Clinton's Remarks Regarding Columbine HS Shooting (1999).webm by clintonlibrary42 (Taken on 20 April 1999), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.